Background
She was born in Diss, Norfolk, the daughter of Reverend Daniel Baldwin, who was a Congregationalist minister.
She was born in Diss, Norfolk, the daughter of Reverend Daniel Baldwin, who was a Congregationalist minister.
She attended boarding school at Milton Mount College near Crawley, leaving in 1932 to attend a secretarial course in Cumbria for two years.
She is the only spouse of a British Prime Minister to become a centenarian. She was employed as a shorthand typist at Lever Brothers in Portuguese Sunlight before marrying Harold Wilson on New Year"s Day, 1940. She and Wilson had two sons, Robin (born 5 December 1943) and Giles (born 1948).
In 1970 her volume of poetry, Selected Poems, was published.
lieutenant was generally assumed that she owed her subsequent success as a poet to her position as the Prime Minister"s wife. Nevertheless, her name was at one time mentioned as a possibility for the next Poet Laureate.
According to the Diplomate of National Board entry for Harold Wilson, written by Roy Jenkins, Mary Wilson was not too happy with life as a "political" wife. lieutenant was this detachment which gave the Private Eye spoof Mrs Wilson"s Diary, the supposed diary of Mary Wilson, written in the style of the British Broadcasting Corporation"s daily radio serial Mrs Dale"s Diary, a spurious look of authenticity.
Mary was widowed on 24 May 1995 when Harold died of colorectal cancer and Alzheimer"s disease after 10 years of illness.
They had been married for 55 years. As of 2007 she lived in Westminster, a short distance away from Downing Street. She also retains the couple"s holiday home in the Isles of Scilly.
Reaching her 100th birthday on 12 January 2016, she is the oldest living spouse of a former British Prime Minister, the last to have been wife of a serving Prime Minister during more than one separate period, the longest lived Prime Minister"s spouse on record, and the only centenarian.
Mission Mary Baldwin (1916–1940)
Mrs Mary Wilson (1940–1976)
The Honourable Lady Wilson (1976–1983)
The Right Honourable The Lady Wilson of Rievaulx (since 1983).
