T.G. Wilson

Thomas George Wilson FRCSI FRCSE FRCS FACS FRSM MRIA HRHA (1 July 1901 – 6 November 1969) was an eminent Anglo-Irish surgeon and medical administrator specialising in otorhinolaryngology, a field to which he made significant contributions. Wilson was also an accomplished author, artist and sailor. He was known as "T.G." and was a leading figure in Dublin society until his sudden death in 1969.

In the Second World War, he served with MI9, a secret branch of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence. He was the organiser of an escape and evasion organisation in Ireland, known to officials as the 'Escape Club', to ferry stranded Royal Air Force personnel from the Curragh Camp, in neutral Ireland across the border back to the UK.

Early life and education Wilson was born at Maryville Park in Belfast on 1 July 1901 to Robert Charles Wilson, a stockbroker and nephew of Walter Henry Wilson, founding partner of Harland and Wolff, and Frances Lucinda Kellett, of distant kin to Sir Henry Kellett.

He was educated at briefly at Eton College and then Mountjoy School (now merged to form part of Mount Temple Comprehensive School) and Trinity College, Dublin. Wilson was also awarded honorary membership of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) as well as a professorship of anatomy at the National College of Art and Design.

Wilson was subject to legal repercussions in 1942 when he was found to be hindering the arrest of a person liable to internment during the neutrality of the Irish Free State in the Second World War. He was part of a group that assisted British servicemen stranded in Ireland to escape across the border to Belfast. He was fined £200 and sentenced to 12 months in prison, which was subsequently suspended on the agreement of a personal bail of £500. His barrister was JA Costello, who later became Taoiseach.

Wilson died suddenly of a heart attack on 6 November 1969 when staying at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

Publications Victorian Doctor: the Life of Sir William Wilde (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1942) The mental and physical health of Dean Swift (Norwich: Jarrold and Sons Ltd., 1958) The death masks of Dean Swift (Norwich: Jarrold and Sons Ltd., 1960) Diseases of the Ears, Nose and Throat in Children (London and New York: William Heinnemann Medical Books Ltd 1955 & Grune & Stratton 1962) The Irish Lighthouse Service (Dublin: A. Figgis, 1968)