James Wilson

Sir James Wilson, (27 February 1853 – 22 September 1926) was a British civil servant in British India, where he spent most of his career in the Punjab. After his return to the United Kingdom he was a senior civil servant under the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, representing the country at the International Institute of Agriculture. He was also an author of books on dialects and folklore, in India and in Scotland.

Career Wilson was born in 1853, the son of Rev. John Wilson, DD, minister and historian of Dunning, Perthshire. He was from 1903 to 1908 Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Revenue and Agriculture (having officiated as such earlier), and in early 1908 took second place to the lieutenant-governor in his old province, when he was appointed Financial Commissioner of the Punjab. It was in this post that he conceived the idea of the Triple Canal Irrigation project, which he lived to see adding enormously to the economic wealth of the province. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in late 1910. for work against famine in Punjab; and promoted to a Knight Commander (KCSI) in the Order in the 1909 New Year Honours.

He died at his residence, Annieslea, Crieff on 22 December 1926.

Publications Wilson had an interest for dialects and folklore, and published several books while in India, including Code of Tribal Custom in Shahpur and in Sirsa and Grammar of Western Punjabi. He also published the more official Gazetteer of Shahpur District and Settlement Report of Sirsa District.

He continued writing after his return to the United Kingdom, writing books on Lowland Scotch as spoken in the Lower Strathearn district of Perthshire (1915), Farm-workers in Scotland, The Dialect of Robert Burns, Scottish Poems of Robert Burns, and Dialects of Central Scotland. They had children, including a son who died in the First World War.