Editing Harold Wilson (section)

==Post-premiership (1976–1995)==
===Retirement===
[[File:Harold Wilson 1 Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wilson in 1986]]

He was appointed in 1976 to chair the Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions (the Wilson Committee) which reported in June 1980.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3025 |title=Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions (Wilson Committee): Evidence Files and Registered Files (FI Series) |publisher=The National Archives |date= |access-date=22 April 2021 |archive-date=27 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227222416/https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3025 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Shortly after resigning as prime minister, Wilson was signed by [[David Frost]] to host a series of interview/chat show programmes. The pilot episode proved to be a flop as Wilson appeared uncomfortable with the informality of the format. Wilson also hosted two editions of the BBC chat show ''[[Friday Night, Saturday Morning]]''. He famously floundered in the role, and in 2000, [[Channel 4]] chose one of his appearances as one of the "100 Moments of TV Hell".

A lifelong [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] fan, in 1975, Wilson joined the Board of Trustees of the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company|D'Oyly Carte Trust]] at the invitation of Sir [[Hugh Wontner]], who was then the [[Lord Mayor of London]].<ref>Wilson and Lloyd, p. 7.</ref> At Christmas 1978, Wilson appeared on the ''[[Morecambe and Wise]]'' Christmas Special. [[Eric Morecambe]]'s habit of appearing not to recognise the guest stars was repaid by Wilson, who referred to him throughout as 'Morry-camby' (the mispronunciation of Morecambe's name made by [[Ed Sullivan]] when the pair appeared on his famous American television show). Wilson appeared on the show again in 1980.

Wilson was not especially active in the [[House of Lords]], although he did initiate a debate on unemployment in May 1984.<ref>''[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1984/may/09/unemployment Hansard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092539/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1984/may/09/unemployment |date=4 March 2016 }}'' HL 5ser vol 451 cols 923–1002.</ref> His last speech was in a debate on [[Maritime pilot|marine pilotage]] in 1986, when he commented as an elder brother of [[Trinity House]].<ref>''[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1986/jun/25/marine-pilotage#S5LV0477P0_19860625_HOL_197 Hansard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830120001/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1986/jun/25/marine-pilotage#S5LV0477P0_19860625_HOL_197 |date=30 August 2017 }}'' HL 5ser vol 477 cols 389-90.</ref> In the same year he played himself as prime minister in an [[Anglia Television]] drama, ''Inside Story''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094486/ |title=Inside Story |publisher=[[IMDb]] }}; see [http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1986/02/12/AS120286004 ITNsource] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120031341/http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1986/02/12/AS120286004 |date=20 January 2012 }} for video.</ref>

Wilson suffered from advancing Alzheimer's related dementia in his retirement years, making it difficult for him to earn an income capitalizing on his experience as a former prime minister by writing books and giving speeches. According to his former press secretary, [[Joe Haines (journalist)|Joe Haines]]: "He never had much money of his own. Because of his mental condition he couldn't write articles or make speeches, and his income would have been his pension as an ex-prime minister," which Haines said was a "comparatively small sum" as Conservative and Liberal former prime ministers were usually aristocrats who had their own wealth or would benefit from wealthy benefactors and by being appointed to corporate boards, and thus did not need to rely on their parliamentary pensions to support themselves. One of Wilson's successors as Labour leader, [[Neil Kinnock]], told ''[[The Guardian]]'': "I heard stories that he was trying to make speeches for money but was unsuccessful because he had lost his fluency." Eventually, Wilson attempted to sell his personal papers to [[McMaster University]] in Canada for £212,500 in order to fund costs of his health care. This arrangement was considered unsuitable by the government and instead, it was arranged in 1991 that anonymous donors would provide funds so that the [[Bodleian Library]] at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] could buy Wilson's papers in order to keep them in the United Kingdom while also allowing the proceeds to set up a [[trust fund]] for Wilson and his wife.<ref name="papers">{{cite news |last1=Davies |first1=Caroline |title=Sad last days of Harold Wilson revealed by Cabinet Office archives |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/27/sad-last-days-of-harold-wilson-revealed-by-cabinet-office-archives |access-date=27 July 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=27 July 2024}}</ref>

===Death===
[[File:Harold Wilson's grave St Mary's, Old Town - geograph org uk - 934336 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Wilson's grave in [[St Mary's, Isles of Scilly]]]]

Wilson continued regularly attending the House of Lords until just over a year before his death; the last sitting he attended was on 27 April 1994. He had a picture taken with other Labour Lords on 15 June 1994, just under a year before his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/various-personalities-1171067ag|title=Labour Lords including Denis Healy James Callaghan Editorial Stock Photo – Stock Image &#124; Shutterstock|access-date=4 June 2021|archive-date=4 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604141445/https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/various-personalities-1171067ag|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''LJ'' [1994] 342.</ref> He died from [[colon cancer]] and [[Alzheimer's disease]] on 23 May 1995, aged 79.{{efn|name = Death}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a29213646/prime-minister-harold-wilson-facts/|title=Harold Wilson Did Have a Top Secret MI File|first=Lauren|last=Hubbard|date=17 November 2019|website=Town & Country|access-date=29 January 2022}}</ref>

Many in the House of Commons made tributes. Prime Minister [[John Major]] called him a "formidable political opponent" and ended his speech with the following words: "What was Harold Wilson really like? I have formed my judgment. He was a complex man, certainly, a clever man, a sensitive man, a man who could be bruised and hurt and who never wore the armadillo skin of the fictional politician. He was a man of many achievements and, perhaps above all, a very human man who served his country well and honourably and who has earned, by that, a secure place in its history. In the ledger of life, his credit balance is very high. It is a privilege for me, as one, nominally, of his political opponents, to pay him this tribute and I do so unreservedly." <ref>{{citation |work=[[Hansard]] – Commons |volume=260 |date=24 May 1995 |title=Lord Wilson (Tributes) |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1995-05-24/debates/af24ef16-bbaa-4d6e-8826-16e076d90d48/LordWilson(Tributes) }}</ref>

Wilson's memorial service was held in [[Westminster Abbey]] on 13 July 1995. It was attended by [[Charles, Prince of Wales]], former prime ministers [[Edward Heath]], [[James Callaghan]], and [[Margaret Thatcher]], incumbent Prime Minister [[John Major]] and [[Tony Blair]], then Leader of the Opposition and later prime minister. Wilson was buried at [[St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's|St Mary's Old Church]], [[St Mary's, Isles of Scilly]], on 6 June.<ref name=autogenerated1/> His epitaph is ''{{Lang|la|Tempus Imperator Rerum}}'' (''Time the Commander of Things'').<ref name="ScillyJack">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/27/scilly-harold-wilson-prime-minister|title=Scilly, where Harold Wilson, the first PM to show his knees, found peace|last=Jack|first=Ian|author-link = Ian Jack|date=27 May 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=27 January 2022}}</ref>