Roland Wilson

Sir Roland Wilson (7 April 190425 October 1996) was a senior Australian public servant and economist.

Life and career Wilson was born in Ulverstone, Tasmania on 7 April 1904. He studied at Devonport High School, where he won a scholarship to take an economics course at the University of Tasmania. The Rhodes Scholarship took him to the University of Oxford where he studied for the degree of doctor of philosophy.

Wilson was appointed Secretary of the Department of Labour & National Service as a war-time secondment in 1940.

In 1946, after World War II, Wilson resumed his position as Commonwealth Statistician until the Menzies government made him Secretary of the Department of the Treasury in 1951.

Awards and honours He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1941 and knighted in 1955.

The Sir Roland Wilson Building at the Australian National University is named after Wilson, in recognition of his significant contribution to public policy and administration in Australia and in many international forums.

The Sir Roland Wilson Foundation at the Australian National University was established by a donation from the Wilson family in 1998, and offers scholarships to Australian public servants to undertake postgraduate studies.