William Deane Wilson

Surgeon-General Sir William Deane Wilson, (27 August 1843 – 19 October 1921 ) was a British army surgeon, who was the principal medical officer of the British Army in South Africa during the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902.

Background and family Wilson was the son of Joseph Deane Wilson, Rathdowney, Queen's County. He married in 1880 Anna Wilhelmina Elizabeth Smythe, elder daughter of Rev. Henry Smythe. They had five sons.

Arriving in Egypt in 1882, he served in the Anglo-Egyptian War which led to the occupation of that country. In the following Sudan Expedition under Sir Gerald Graham in 1884 (part of the Mahdist War), he was Principal Medical Officer of the Infantry Brigade. He took part in the field operations against Osman Digna, and was present at the battles at El-Teb and Tamai, for which he was mentioned in dispatches, and promoted Surgeon–Major with relative rank of lieutenant-colonel on 20 May 1884. For his service in South Africa, he was mentioned in despatches three times (including despatches by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902 ), received the Queen's South Africa Medal, the King's South Africa Medal, and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) (dated 29 November 1900) in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list.

Following his return, he was attached to the War Office, where he wrote a report on the medical services during the war. He retired from the army on 1 Jan 1904.