- ‘A Practical and Theoretical Treatise … on Diseases of the Skin,’ London, 1842, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1847; translated into German, Leipzig, 1850.
- ‘The Eastern or Turkish Bath: its History,’ &c., London, 1861, 16mo.
- ‘The Vessels of the Human Body, in a Series of Plates’ (with Jones Quain), London, 1837, fol. Wilson edited the ‘Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Diseases of the Skin,’ London, 1867–70.
1842; 11th edit. 1892.
[Brit. Med. Journal, 1884, ii. 347; Trans. Medico-Chir. Soc. 1885, lxviii. 20–2.]
WILSON, WILLIAM RAE (1772–1849), author of ‘Travels,’ was a member of a Haddington family named Rae, and was born in Paisley on 7 June 1772. He learned law under his uncle, John Wilson, town clerk of Glasgow, and for a time practised as a solicitor before the supreme courts of Scotland. His uncle, who died in 1806, left him his fortune, and he then, by letters patent, added Wilson to his name, and resolved to gratify a taste for travel, specially stimulated at the moment by his wife's premature death. He travelled in Egypt and Palestine, and through most of Europe, preparing as he went minute and interesting records of his experience. As he was in some respects a pioneer, his publications had an immediate popularity, and they retain a certain historical interest. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in 1844 received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Glasgow. In recognition of this academical distinction he bequeathed to the university 300l. to provide an annual prize for an essay on Christ and the benefits of Christianity. An upright man, a writer and a distributor of tracts, he was not of a specially tolerant spirit. One hapless stricture provoked Hood's discursive and pungent ‘Ode to Rae Wilson, Esquire,’ published in 1837 with characteristic prefatory note addressed to the editor of the ‘Athenæum’ (Hood, Poems, edit. 1867, i. 61). Rae Wilson died in London, in South Crescent, Bedford Square, on 2 June 1849, and was buried in Glasgow necropolis, where his grave is marked by a conspicuous monument of oriental design.
In 1811 Rae Wilson married Frances Phillips, daughter of a Glasgow merchant. Her death, eighteen months later, prompted a privately circulated memorial tribute, afterwards published in Gisborne's ‘Christian Female Biography.’ He married, a second time, Miss Cates, who accompanied him in his travels and survived him.
Rae Wilson's publications include:
- ‘Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land,’ 1823.
- ‘A Journey through Turkey, Greece, the Ionian Isles, Sicily, Spain,’ 1824.
- ‘Travels in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Hanover, Germany, Netherlands,’ 1826.
- ‘Travels in Russia,’ 1828, 2 vols.
- ‘Records of a Route through France and Italy; with Sketches of Catholicism,’ 1835.
The work on Egypt and the Holy Land was very popular, and ran through several editions.
[Chambers's Biogr. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Glasgow University Calendar; Addison's Roll of Glasgow Graduates, 1898.]
WILSON, Sir WILTSHIRE (1762–1842), lieutenant-general, colonel-commandant royal artillery, born in 1762, was second son of Major Wiltshire Wilson of Wollock Grange, Northumberland, formerly of the 1st dragoons, by a daughter of Ralph Phillips of Colchester. After passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich he received a commission as second lieutenant in the royal artillery on 9 July 1779. The dates of his further commissions were: lieutenant, 28 Feb. 1782; captain-lieutenant, 1 Nov. 1793; captain, 1 July 1796; brevet major, 29 Aug. 1802; regimental major, 20 July 1804; lieutenant-colonel, 10 March 1805; brevet colonel, 4 July 1813; regimental colonel, 20 Dec. 1814; major-general, 12 Aug. 1819; colonel-commandant of royal artillery, 21 Jan. 1828; lieutenant-general, 10 Jan. 1837.
Wilson went to the West Indies in 1780, whence in 1786 he took a detachment of artillery to Canada, and in 1790 returned to England. He served with the Duke of York's army in Flanders in 1793, and was for some time attached with two 6-pounder guns to the 53rd foot. He was employed in May, June, and July at the siege of Valenciennes, which place capitulated on 28 July. He was dangerously wounded at the attack on Dunkirk on 24 Aug. In October he was thrown into Nieuport with his two guns in company with the 53rd foot and two Hessian battalions, where they were attacked by the whole French army under General Vandamme. Vandamme met with an obstinate resistance, the sluices were opened, and his siege batteries inundated, and when, abandoning the regular attack, he attempted a night assault on 25 Oct., his front was so limited between the river and the inundation that Wilson, with his two guns placed to command the enemy's approach, was able, by firing rapidly into the advancing foe over one hundred rounds of grape and round shot, to create such fearful havoc that the French {{hyphenated word start|with-|withdrew}
