The Story of the East Riding of YorkshireBrowne, Horace B. (Horace Baker)
History
The Story of the East Riding of Yorkshire
Browne, Horace B. (Horace Baker)
Yorkshire (England) -- History
Absolutely ‘straight’ in all that he did, he takes rank as a true
specimen of ‘The Fine Old English Gentleman’—the Sir Roger de Coverley
of the nineteenth century.
[Illustration:
_Photo by_] [_Henry Thelwell_
Sir Tatton Sykes.
]
* * * * *
Last on our list of Famous Sons of the East Riding stand the names of
CHARLES AND ARTHUR WILSON.
The younger sons of Thomas Wilson, founder of the great shipping firm of
‘Thomas Wilson, Sons & Co., Limited,’ they were born at Hull in 1833 and
1836 respectively. On the retirement of their eldest brother David in
1867, the control of the firm came into their hands, and how it grew and
prospered, and how the town of Hull grew and prospered at the same time
have been described in a previous chapter.
The parallel between the ancient family of the De la Poles and the
modern family of the Wilsons has been noted by more than one writer. It
may rightly be said that as the former were the founders of the
commercial prosperity of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, so the latter
were the founders of the commercial prosperity of the city of Hull.
For thirty-two years—from 1874 to 1906—Charles Wilson sat in Parliament
as a representative of the burgesses of his native place. Then his
political services were recognised by the Ministry, and he became the
first Baron Nunburnholme of Kingston-upon-Hull.
[Illustration:
_Photo by_] [_Barry, Hull_
Charles Wilson, First Baron Nunburnholme.
]
Arthur Wilson did not, like his brother, enter political life, but
became widely famed as a sportsman. For twenty-five years he was Master
of the Holderness Hunt, and the most famous Meet under his rule was that
at Brantingham Thorpe, then the residence of Mr. Christopher Sykes, in
January 1882, when more than four thousand people assembled to greet the
Prince of Wales.
Charles, Baron Nunburnholme, died at Warter Priory, on October 27th,
1907, and his brother, Mr. Arthur Wilson, at Tranby Croft, on October
21st, 1909. The body of the latter was drawn to its resting-place in
Kirkella Churchyard on a farm rulley by a team of farm horses, and
public feeling at the time may be gauged from the following passage in
one of the newspaper reports of his death:—
In Hull Mr. Wilson was known and respected as a just and honourable
merchant and a philanthropist; in the county he was known and
admired as a model landlord, and a keen and fearless sportsman.
[Illustration:
_Photo by_] Arthur Wilson. [_Barry, Hull_
]
XXVII.
SHIPS OF THE HUMBER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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