Mr. G. L. WILSON, F.R.I.B.A., F.R.I.C.S. (known as "Tug" to his friends joined the firm of Palmer & Turner as assistant architect in 1908, arriving in Hong Kong in September of that year. Amongst other build- ings being erected at that time was the southern section of the Hong Kong Hotel which had already been designed, but he took charge and finished it.
In 1912, Col. MH. Logan and Mr. G. L.. Wilson left Hong Kong for Shanghai and opened an office there for the firm; their first building being the Union Building on the Bund for the Union Insurance Society of Canton.
Mr. Wilson was admitted a part- ner in the firm and remained there excepting for periods of leave and oc- casional visits to the Hong Kong and other offices until 1940, when he went to Malaya and ran the firm's office there until the Japanese
occupation in 1942.
Mr. Wilson is an admirer of American architecture and is well known in New York; he travelled extensively in the U.S.A. where he studied their best buildings and some of his work shows he was influenced by what he saw.
The list of buildings designed and supervised by the firm under Mr.
Wilson's direction in Shanghai dur- ing the 28 years from 1912-1940, reads like a directory, a few of the best known being the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, Chartered Bank, Yokohama Specie Bank, Mitsui Bank, Head Office Bank of China, Customs House, Cathay Hotel, Metropole Hotel, Hamilton House, Blocks 1 & 2, Yangtze Insurance Building, Glen Line Building, Broad- way Mansion, Cathay Mansion, Grosvenor House & Gardens, Em- bankment Building, Royal Asiatic Society Museum & Library, Syna- gogue, British School, Ewo Brewery, Kiangwan Race Stands, Paton & Baldwins Mill & Staff Quarters, etc., etc., etc.
During this period the firm opened an office in Hankow and designed the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, Shell House and other buildings there.
The firm also carried out buildings in Nanking and Japan, and have recently opened an office in North Borneo.
In 1933, the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank instructed Mr. Wilson personally to design their new Head Office Building in Hong Kong, and whilst this was being built Mr. Wilson paid frequent visits to Hong Kong.
In 1937, the Sultan of Johore in vited Mr. Wilson to design the new Government Offices in Johore; this was completed in 1941 and is con- sidered by many to be the finest building in the Far East, and as a result in 1938 the firm opened offices since then have designed a very in Singapore and Johore Bahru, and large number of fine buildings in Malaya.
In 1938, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India invited Mr. Wilson to go to India and design three bank buildings; these were in Bombay, Rangoon and Madras, and the firm maintained offices in Bom-
bay and Rangoon for several years designing many buildings in India.
He was fortunate to be evacuated two days before the Japanese took over, but the ship he was in was dive bombed and sunk and he spent some time on an uninhabited island, boat and taken to Sumatra, he with being eventually rescued by a fishing
others was again lucky, being picked up by the Royal Navy and after many adventures reached England.
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There he joined the Ministry of Works and was engaged on import tant war work until he returned to Hong Kong in February 1946.
The air craft in which he travelled from Singapore made a forced landing on Hainan Island, and once again he was rescued by the Royal Navy.
He took a large part in the re- habilitation of the Colony and since his return served on the following Advisory Committee 1946, dealing Committees - Building Construction with rehabilitation, Building Costs Committee, Authorized Architects Advisory Committee, Fine Arts Committee and the Causeway Bay Committee. He has served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors.
In Shanghai he served on the Land Commission and various Municipal Council Committees in- cluding the Economy Committee, being Chairman of the Sub-Com- mittee reporting on the P.W.D.
Valuers Society and for many years He was Chairman of the Land
was on the Committee of the Royal Asiatic Society, and it was largely due to his efforts that money was raised to erect their new building for which he was honorary architect. This building consisted of a Muse- um, Library and Lecture Hall, etc.
A member of nearly all the Clubs in Shanghai and a keen riding man in his younger days, Mr. Wilson was played polo and occasionally rode a Steward of the Paper Hunt Club,
steeplechases, and one year won the his own ponies in the races and Light Horse Point to Point; he served in the Shanghai Light Horse 10 years.
The last important building de- signed by him was the 17 storey Bank of China, Hong Kong, a fitting final monument to a distinguished career in the Far East where he always
upheld the finest traditions of his profession, and did as much for British Architecture as any other architect to come East of Suez.
He has retired to a farm in Hamp- shire which he has owned since 1934, and the charming Tudor farm and paved courtyard and sunken house with the old converted Barn
garden is about as different to his modern house at Shek O as it could well be.