Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx

The Right Honourable The Lady Wilson of Rievaulx
Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 4 March 1974 – 5 April 1976
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Vacant
Succeeded by	Audrey Callaghan
In office 16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Elizabeth Douglas-Home
Succeeded by	Vacant
Personal details
Born	(1916-01-12) 12 January 1916 Diss, Norfolk, UK
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Harold Wilson (m. 1940–1995, his death)
Children	Robin, Giles
Parents	Rev Daniel Baldwin, Sarah Bentley
a. ^ The Prime Minister from 19 June 1970 to 4 March 1974 was Edward Heath, who was a lifelong bachelor.

Gladys Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx (born 12 January 1916), née Baldwin, is an English poet, best known as the widow of former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. She is the longest lived of all Prime Ministerial spouses and the only one to become a centenarian.

Biography

She was born in Diss, Norfolk, the daughter of Reverend Daniel Baldwin, who was a Congregationalist minister. She attended boarding school at Milton Mount College near Crawley, leaving in 1932 to attend a secretarial course in Cumbria for two years. She was employed as a shorthand typist at Lever Brothers in Port Sunlight before marrying Harold Wilson on New Year's Day, 1940. She and Wilson had two sons, Robin (born 5 December 1943) and Giles (born 1948).

In 1970 her volume of poetry, Selected Poems, was published. It was generally assumed that she owed her subsequent success as a poet to her position as the Prime Minister's wife. Nevertheless, her name was at one time mentioned as a possibility for the next Poet Laureate. In 1976 Wilson was one of three judges of the Man Booker Prize, the other judges being Walter Allen and Francis King. According to the DNB entry for Harold Wilson, written by Roy Jenkins, Mary Wilson was not too happy with life as a "political" wife. It was this detachment which gave the Private Eye spoof Mrs Wilson's Diary, the supposed diary of Mary Wilson, written in the style of the BBC's daily radio serial Mrs Dale's Diary, a spurious look of authenticity.

Mary was widowed on 24 May 1995 when Harold died of colorectal cancer and Alzheimer's disease after 10 years of illness. They had been married for 55 years. As of 2007 she lived in Westminster, a short distance away from Downing Street. She also retains the couple's holiday home in the Isles of Scilly. Reaching her 100th birthday on 12 January 2016, she is the oldest living spouse of a former British Prime Minister, the last to have been during more than one separate period, wife of a serving Prime Minister, the longest lived Prime Minister's spouse on record, and the only centenarian.

Titles from birth

• Miss Mary Baldwin (1916-1940)
• Mrs Mary Wilson (1940-1976)
• Lady Wilson (1976-1983)
• Right Honourable Lady Wilson of Rievaulx (1983 -)

Bibliography

Selected Poems (1970) ISBN 0-09-105010-3
New Poems (1979) ISBN 0-09-139460-0

External links

• Mary Wilson Selected Poems
• Roy Hattersley, The truth about Harold Wilson – after 30 years of scandalous rumours, Daily Mail, 24 June 2007 [2]
• In praise of … Mary Wilson Mrs Wilson was and remains a lady of firm convictions, and at 94 is as alert as ever, Guardian 17 March 2010 [3]

Honorary titles
Preceded by Elizabeth Douglas-Home	Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1964–1970	Vacant Title next held by Herself (Edward Heath was a bachelor)
Vacant Title last held by Herself (Edward Heath was a bachelor)	Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1974–1976	Succeeded by Audrey Callaghan