Edward Adrian Wilson - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Montpellier Terrace, Cheltenham on 23 July 1872, Wilson was the second son and fifth child of physician Dr Edward Thomas Wilson (1832–1918) and his wife, Mary Agnes, née Whishaw (1841–1930). A clever, sensitive, but boisterous boy, he developed a love of the countryside, natural history and drawing from an early age. He was sent as a boarder to a Preparatory School in Clifton, Bristol, but after failing to gain a scholarship to Public School, he attended Cheltenham College for Boys as a day pupil. His mother was a poultry breeder and he spent much of his youth at The Crippetts farm, Leckhampton near Cheltenham. By the age of nine he had announced to his parents that he was going to become a naturalist. With encouragement and tuition from his father, he started to draw pictures of the wildlife and fauna in the fields around the farm. After passing his Oxford and Cambridge exams with honours in Science, in 1891 he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he read Natural Sciences, obtaining a first class degree in 1894. It was during his time there that he developed the deep Christian faith and asceticism by which he lived his life. He studied for his Bachelor of Medicine (M.B.) degree at St George's Hospital Medical School, London and undertook mission work in the slums of Battersea in his spare time. In February 1898, shortly before qualifying as a doctor, Wilson became seriously ill with Pulmonary tuberculosis contracted during his mission work. During a long convalescence from this illness he spent months in Norway and Switzerland, time he used to practice and develop his skills as an artist. He qualified in medicine in 1900 and the next year was appointed Junior House Surgeon at Cheltenham General Hospital. He married Oriana Souper on 16 July 1901 just three weeks before setting off for the Antarctic as a member of Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition.