Born in Cottesbrooke, a small Northamptonshire village, Wilson was the oldest of three cricketing brothers, each of whom played for Suffolk in the Minor Counties Championship.
Bowling leg breaks, he took eight wickets on his first-class debut, which included a five-wicket haul, 5/60, in the second innings.
[6] He captained the Army to a 170-run victory in the June 1914 fixture,[8] and was subsequently selected for the MCC in a match against Cambridge University the following month, played at Lord's.
He saw active service with the 1st battalion in South Africa during the Second Boer War, during which he was promoted to captain on 14 October 1901.
His son, Colonel Nathaniel John Wilson (also an OBE), married a daughter of Sir Pierce Lacy, 1st Bt., a previous High Sheriff of Suffolk.