105107: Thomas Wilson

Thomas Wilson (1855-1936) was born in Wick, and was a solicitor by profession. By 1891, he was a widower, staying at Lochmaddy Hotel.

In 1901 he married nurse Christina Paterson of Taigh a’ Chiobair, Borve. The marriage was registered in Glasgow in their absence. In April, for the 1901 census, Thomas was a guest at the Mission House in Lochmaddy. The couple moved to Harris, where their son Harris was born in 1904. They lived in Obbe, together with Christina’s young cousin Mary Ann Paterson.

By 1911 the family was back in Lochmaddy, joined by another cousin of Christina’s: lady’s companion Christina Ann Ferguson. It is possible that they were living in Thomas’s new house, Taigh na Hearadh.

Following his wife’s death in 1914, Thomas remarried. His marriage to widow Wilhelmina Halkett or MacLeod, took place in St Stephen’s Church in Edinburgh in 1916.

Amongst many roles, Thomas defended crofters from eviction in North Uist. He was clerk to North Uist Parish Council and to three other parish councils, to Harris District Committee and the Harris School Board. He became Sub Commissioner for Smallholdings for the Board of Agriculture for Scotland.

On 16th October 1912 he gave evidence to the Dewar Commission, meeting in Lochmaddy. A transcript of his contribution can be found on a site detailing the Dewar report. 

In his later years, Thomas lived at Conan House, Uig, Skye. He passed away at the age of 81. His gravestone at the old cemetery in Uig, remembers Thomas as

A devoted worker for land settlement in the Highlands and Islands and a friend of the people.