Life

He was the eldest son of the missionary John Wilson. He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Tübingen, and afterwards lived for some time in Italy. He then went to India, where he began his career as a journalist by taking charge of the Bombay Times

Bombay Times

The Bombay Times is a free supplement of The Times of India, in the Mumbai region.It covers celebrity news, news features, international and national music news, international and national fashion news, lifestyle and feature articles pegged on news events both national and international that have...

in the absence of George Buist, and as an oriental traveller by a tour in Baluchistan.

After his return to England he contributed to Blackwood's Magazine

Blackwood's Magazine

Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...

some verses entitled ‘Wayside Songs’; he maintained his connection with ‘Blackwood’ throughout his life. Returning in 1860 to the east, he edited for three years the China Mail, accompanied the expedition to Tianjin

Tianjin

' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...

 after the Second Opium War

Second Opium War

The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...

, and visited Japan. In 1860 he issued at Hongkong a pamphlet entitled ‘England's Policy in China,’ in which he advocated the change of policy afterwards carried out by Sir Frederick William Adolphus Bruce, Robert Hart

Robert Hart

Robert Hart, Bob Hart, or Bobby Hart may refer to:* Bob Hart , a.k.a. Al Trace, American musician* Bob Hart , American bass player* Bobby Hart , American songwriter...

, and General Gordon. He travelled in southern China, and sent descriptive contributions to the Daily News

Daily News

Daily News or The Daily News is the name of several daily newspapers around the world, including:- Australia :* Daily News - United Kingdom :...

and Pall Mall Gazette

Pall Mall Gazette

The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood...

on Asian questions, as well as to ‘Blackwood.’

At the beginning of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 he paid a visit to the United States, and afterwards passed some years in England, during which he wrote for papers and magazines. Returning to India about 1873, he edited for a time the Times of India and the Bombay Gazette. Ill-health delayed the publication till 1878 of his book ‘The Ever-Victorious Army: a History of the Chinese Campaigns under Lieutenant-colonel C. G. Gordon, C.B., R.E., and of the Suppression of the Tai-Ping Rebellion,’ an account of the suppression of the movement of 1863–4. Wilson's chief source of information was Gordon's Private Journal then unpublished.

In 1875 Wilson published travel writing under the title ‘The Abode of Snow: Observations on a Journey from Chinese Tibet to the Indian Caucasus through the Upper Valleys of the Himalaya.’ The book is based on articles in Blackwood's Magazine. A second edition was issued next year. Before his final departure from India Wilson made an excursion into the state of Kathiawar

Kathiawar

Kathiawar or Kathiawad is a peninsula in western India, which is part of the Saurashtra region on the Arabian Sea coast of Gujarat state. It is bounded on the north by the great wetland of the Rann of Kutch, on the northwest by the Gulf of Kutch, on the west and south by the Arabian Sea, and on...

. His last contribution to ‘Blackwood’, written in the spring of 1877, was a retrospect of African travel (‘Twenty Years of African Travel’).

The last years of his life were passed in England in the Lake district. He died at Howton on Ullswater

Ullswater

Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being approximately nine miles long and 0.75 miles wide with a maximum depth of slightly more than ....

on 9 June 1881.