Career
His childhood was spent in the North west of England and he returned to the family origins the Isle of Manitoba during the Second World War living in Kirk Michael. After winning a County Scholarship from Burnley Grammar School, Neilson received a 1st Class degree in Geography and then a Masters degree (his thesis being on the Formation of the Dartmoor Tors (Neilson and Palmer) from Leeds University before receiving a Fulbright scholarship to Wisconsin University. He returned becoming an academic at Edinburgh University.
From Edinburgh he joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office serving in Congo, Chile (twice), Australia, Northern Ireland, Zambia, Gibraltar (as Deputy Governor), Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile.