Frank Wilson

Who was Frank Wilson?

Frank Wilson, CMG, was the ninth Premier of Western Australia, serving on two separate occasions.

Frank Wilson was born at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, England on 12 May 1859. He was educated in Sunderland, then Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, and finally at Wesley College, Sheffield. He was then apprenticed to Peacock Bros. and Sons, a Sunderland firm of shipbrokers and timber merchants. At the age of nineteen, he joined his brother in the establishment of an engineering works. Two years later, he married Annie Phillips.

Wilson remained in the engineering business for eight years, until an engineering strike in 1886 caused the business substantial losses. The following year he sailed for Queensland, where he initially ran his own business, and later became manager of A. Overend and Company, a well-known firm of railway contractors, machinery merchants and flour millers. In October 1891, Wilson came to Perth, Western Australia to take up an appointment as managing director of the Canning Jarrah Timber Company, a position that he held until 1899. He became director of numerous other companies, and acted as a mining agent.