Editing Harold Wilson (section)

==Early life==
Wilson was born at Warneford Road, [[Cowlersley]], in the western suburbs of the mill town of [[Huddersfield]], in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], England, on 11 March 1916. He came from a political family: his father James Herbert Wilson was a works chemist who had been active in the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], serving as [[Winston Churchill]]'s deputy election agent in a 1908 by-election, but later joined the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. His mother Ethel (''née'' Seddon) was a schoolteacher before her marriage; in 1901 her brother [[Harold Seddon]] settled in [[Western Australia]] and became the 8th [[President of the Western Australian Legislative Council]] in 1946. When Wilson was eight, he visited London and a much-reproduced photograph was taken of him standing on the doorstep of [[10 Downing Street]]. At the age of ten, he went with his family to Australia, where he became fascinated with the pomp and glamour of politics. On the way home, he told his mother, "I am going to be prime minister."<ref>Ben Pimlott, ''Harold Wilson'' (1992), pp. 3–20, quote p. 20.</ref>

===Education===
Wilson won a scholarship to attend [[Royds Hall Grammar School]], his local grammar school (now a comprehensive school) in [[Huddersfield]], Yorkshire.<ref>{{cite web |last=Major |first=John |title=Mr Major's Commons Tribute to Harold Wilson – 24 May 1995 |url=https://johnmajorarchive.org.uk/1995/05/24/mr-majors-commons-tribute-to-harold-wilson-24-may-1995/ |website=The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH |date=24 May 1995 |access-date=24 April 2023}}</ref> His father, working as an industrial chemist, was made redundant in December 1930, and it took him nearly two years to find work; he moved to [[Spital, Merseyside|Spital]], on the [[Wirral Peninsula]], to do so. Wilson continued his education in the Sixth Form at the [[Wirral Grammar School for Boys]], where he became [[Head Boy]].

[[File:Wilson banner.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Order of the Garter|Garter]] banner of Harold Wilson in the chapel at [[Jesus College, Oxford]], where he studied PPE]]

Wilson did well at school and, although he missed getting a scholarship, he obtained an [[Exhibition (scholarship)|exhibition]]; this, when topped up by a county grant, enabled him to study at [[Jesus College, Oxford]], from 1934. At Oxford, Wilson was moderately active in politics as a member of the Liberal Party but was strongly influenced by [[G. D. H. Cole]]. His politics tutor, [[R. B. McCallum]], considered Wilson to be the best student he ever had.<ref>Kenneth O. Morgan, ''Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock'' (Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 247.</ref> He graduated in PPE ([[philosophy, politics and economics]]) with "an outstanding first class Bachelor of Arts degree, with alphas on every paper" in the final examinations, and a series of major academic awards.<ref>Ben Pimlott, ''Harold Wilson,'' (1993), p. 59.</ref> Biographer [[Roy Jenkins]] wrote:
<blockquote>Academically his results put him among prime ministers in the category of [[Robert Peel|Peel]], [[Gladstone]], [[Asquith]], and no one else. But...he lacked originality. What he was superb at was the quick assimilation of knowledge, combined with an ability to keep it ordered in his mind and to present it lucidly in a form welcome to his examiners.<ref>Jenkins (2009).</ref></blockquote>

He continued in academia, becoming one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21. He was a lecturer in [[Economic History]] at [[New College, Oxford|New College]] from 1937, and a research [[fellow]] at [[University College, Oxford|University College]].{{Cn|date=February 2025}}

===War service===
On the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], Wilson volunteered for military service, but was classed as a specialist and moved into the civil service instead. For much of this time, he was a research assistant to [[William Beveridge]], the Master of University College, working on the issues of unemployment and the trade cycle. Wilson later became a statistician and economist for the coal industry. He was Director of Economics and Statistics at the [[Ministry of Fuel and Power]] in 1943–44 and was made an [[OBE]] for his services.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kynaston |first=David |author-link=David Kynaston |title=Austerity Britain 1945–51 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]] |year=2008 |pages=236, 237 |isbn=978-0-7475-9923-4}}</ref>

He was to remain passionately interested in statistics, becoming a Fellow of the [[Royal Statistical Society]] in 1943.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Moore |first=Peter&nbsp;G. |title=Obituary: James Harold Wilson 1916–95. |journal=Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in Society) |volume=159 |number=1 |year=1996 |page=167 |jstor=2983476|doi=10.1111/j.1467-985X.1996.tb00710.x }}</ref> As [[President of the Board of Trade]], he was the driving force behind the Statistics of Trade Act 1947, which is still the authority governing most economic statistics in [[UK|Britain]]. He was instrumental as prime minister in appointing [[Claus Moser]] as head of the [[Central Statistical Office, UK|Central Statistical Office]], and was president of the [[Royal Statistical Society]] between 1972 and 1973.{{Cn|date=February 2025}}