History
Born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, Wilson travelled the world as a mariner and studied world religions, preparing himself, by his own account, for a destiny which was subsequently revealed to him in a remarkable vision in the south of France in the fall of 1924. By virtue of his personal charisma and powerful spiritual message, he soon attracted a devoted following, including a group of wealthy and socially prominent individuals. Having taken the name Brother XII, he established the Aquarian Foundation in 1927, the group's beliefs being based largely upon the teachings of the Theosophical Society. Wilson encouraged Foundation members to build homes at the colony's headquarters on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, at idyllic Cedar-by-the-Sea. With the goal of being a self-sufficient community independent of the outside world, the Foundation acquired additional property on nearby Valdes and De Courcy Islands through the donations of a wealthy socialite named Mary Connally from Asheville, North Carolina. Other followers gave donations, large and small, to support Brother XII's work as a spiritual teacher, as well as his political activity, supporting Democrat Alabama Senator James Thomas Heflin, who ultimately supported Herbert Hoover, as a third party candidate in the United States' 1928 presidential election.
An insurrection developed within the ranks of the Aquarian Foundation when Brother XII's critics charged that he had claimed to be the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris, though he replied that he was only speaking figuratively, that Orisis and Isis were male and female principles in Nature. Still, Brother XII's misuse of Foundation funds and extramarital affair with a woman he claimed was his soul-mate led to the breakup of the Aquarian Foundation, which was legally dissolved in 1929, though he continued his work with the followers who had remained loyal to him during the crisis, as well as a number of new recruits. As time passed, he became increasingly dictatorial and paranoid, fortifying his island kingdom, and accumulating a fortune in gold. His mistress Mabel Skottowe, née Rowbotham (under the name "Madame Z") worked the members without respite, the tasks given being considered tests of their fitness to advance spiritually. One man, who had been imprisoned in a cellar on the northern end of Valdes Island, managed to find a rowboat and row to Nanaimo to report the circumstances to the British Columbia Provincial Police, who investigated, but took no further action. Eventually, as conditions deteriorated, Brother XII's core group of disciples revolted and filed legal charges against him to recover the monies they had contributed to his work. In a violent reaction, he destroyed the colony, smashing its buildings and farm equipment and scuttling his flagship, the sailboat Lady Royal.
Wilson and Skottowe escaped in their private tugboat, the Kheunaten, failing to appear in court to answer the charges brought by their former disciples. Wilson is reported to have died in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on November 7, 1934, though he may have fabricated his death, since he subsequently rendezvoused in San Francisco with his lawyer, whose son has provided an eye-witness account of this mysterious meeting. Brother XII was an eloquent and articulate writer and those who met him at the beginning of his career were impressed by his knowledge and considered him to be a genuine mystic.
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