John Wilson

Who was John Wilson?

John Wilson was the Anglicized name of Captain Frederick Walgren, a Swedish sailor and o-yatoi gaikokujin who was active in the development of British-Japanese ties in the late 19th century. Walgren was born in Genarp, Skåne, Sweden on July 8, 1851. He entered into British service, changing his name to Wilson. Wilson initially resided in Nagasaki, Kyūshū, living next-door to Thomas Blake Glover. The Wilson family subsequently resided in Nagasaki and Kobe. He married a Japanese national on January 11, 1883 in the Christ Church of England in Yokohama, Japan. His wife upon baptism Anglicised her name from Naka Yamazaki to Sophia Wilson, and adopted her son, Nils Wilson. Their children were August, Frederick, Maria, Christina, Hilda, Hannah and John.

Sofia Wilson was a confidant and neighbor of Tsuru Glover, the Japanese wife of Thomas Glover, and together with Tsuru's friendship with the Japanese Ambassador to Italy, the stories of Naka and Tsuru may have been incorporated in Giacomo Puccini`s Madam Butterfly.