TOPIC:

Does this help?

strippersguide.blogspot.com/2012/07/ink-...files-wo-wilson.html

I wonder if this chap went a little further abroad than his initial task in the Carribean. The Anglo boer War would definately had a big pull on this man, officially or un-officially.

Regards
Brian

Brian

That certainly gives the definitive answer to the original query! Congratulations on your successful detective work. I hope your reply is in time to influence the description of the Thorneycroft artefact before it goes on sale.

Regards
Brett

Many thanks, Brian. I don't know how or where you managed to find that, but it does seem to be the answer. Funnily enough, I first saw the screen seven or eight years ago and in the back of my mind I recall mention then of a possible American connection but I can't for the life of me remember why. But would an American war artist of South African/British extraction have enlisted in the British army in order to go to South Africa? Couldn't he just have gone as any other correspondent? Or do you think the William Oliver Wilson in TMI was a different person altogether, and therefore just a huge coincidence?
Nick

Brett/Nick

Over the years I have done a lot of digging on the internet. Often it all depends on how one enters a search. This time it was the chaps name+cartoons and it popped up!

I have seen this panel before somewhere, almost sure it was on ebay some time back, a similar query was raised on the BMF..... BUT true to form it was shot down soon after being posted as "not medal related" or some such comment.

Collectors have a lot to offer each other besides medalic info, this site proves it.

Regards
Brian

Hi Nick

I am sure it is the same man, on a few of the American cartoons one can see a transition to W.O.W. and the figures are very close to the Boer War caricatures, sadly I am not an art expert BUT the connection is just uncanny if nothing else!

Glad to have been of help.

Brian

It seems he was born in Natal SA and died in the Transvaal 1917.

Below is his Archive entry for his Death Notice and Estate file.


DEPOT TAB
SOURCE MHG
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 0
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 31015
PART 1
DESCRIPTION WILSON, WILLIAM OLIVER.
STARTING 19170000
ENDING 19170000
REMARKS SURVIVING SPOUSE DORA WILSON (BORN BURNETT).