Geoffrey Wilson

Sir Geoffrey Masterman Wilson KCB CMG (7 April 1910 – 11 July 2004) was a British barrister and civil servant who became a vice-president of the World Bank. In later life he chaired the Race Relations Board and Oxfam.

In 1947–1948, he was an alternate member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, which worked on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Early life The third son of Alexander Cowan Wilson and his wife Edith Jane Brayshaw, Wilson was born at Birkenhead into a Quaker family. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he was a classical exhibitioner. He was chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club in 1930, and president of the Oxford Union in the Trinity term of 1931. In 1931 he joined the Middle Temple as a Harmsworth Law Scholar.

After that, Wilson rejoined his friend Cripps at HM Treasury, then was seconded for a year to the Cabinet Office. From 1951 to 1953 he was in Ceylon as Director of the Colombo Plan Technical Co-Operation Bureau. In 1955, he headed the office of R. A. Butler, when he was Lord Privy Seal. In 1956, he was promoted to under-secretary. In 1958, he was posted to Washington D.C. as deputy head of the Treasury delegation, also joining the World Bank as Alternative Executive Director. In 1961, he became vice-president of the World Bank. In 1966, he returned to London as deputy secretary of the new Ministry of Overseas Development, then was at the Commonwealth Secretariat as deputy director-general for economic affairs. From 1971 to 1977 he held his last paid job as chairman of the Race Relations Board, retiring when it was merged with the Commission for Racial Equality.

Honours Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1962 New Year Honours Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, December 1968