David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Wilson was born in Scotland and was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond and Keble College, Oxford (1955–58, Master of Arts), and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Ph.D. in contemporary Chinese history, obtained in 1973). He studied Chinese at the University of Hong Kong from 1960 to 1962 and then served in the British Mission in Beijing. He was fluent in Mandarin and spent 10 of his 30 years as a diplomat in China.

In 1968 Wilson resigned from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to edit The China Quarterly at the School of Oriental and African Studies. After rejoining the Diplomatic Service in 1974 he worked in the Cabinet Office and then, from 1977 to 1981, as Political Adviser to Sir Murray MacLehose, then Governor of Hong Kong. Following that he became Head of Southern European Department in the FCO and then Assistant Under Secretary for Asia and the Pacific during which time he was Head of the British side of the Working Group engaged in drafting the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong and then, in 1984, the first Senior British Representative on the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (中英聯合聯絡小組) set up under the Joint Declaration. When Sir Edward Youde died in Beijing on 5 December 1986, Wilson replaced him to become the Governor of Hong Kong in 1987.