[1] He was educated at Douglas High School for Boys on the Isle of Man, and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree.

[8] Wilson stood as the SNP parliamentary candidate at the Dundee East by-election in March 1973, where he was narrowly defeated by Labour's George Machin.

He did however clearly out-poll the Lord Provost of Dundee, William Fitzgerald, who stood as a Conservative and was thought to have had a good chance of winning the seat.

[9][10] Machin was a native of Sheffield and some thought Labour made a mistake by selecting an Englishman for a Scottish seat.

[9] Wilson was reported to be disappointed by losing narrowly, but was pleased by the considerable increase in the SNP vote since the last general election.

Anthony Finlay, writing in The Glasgow Herald opined that Wilson held his seat "only because the Labour Party was foolish enough to pick Jimmy Reid" as his opponent.

[18] In the early 1980s when the party was in internal turmoil, and he was a key mover in condemning both Siol nan Gaidheal and the 79 Group.

[2] In September 1998 he was selected by delegates at the SNP's conference as a candidate for Scotland in the 1999 European Parliament elections.

[21][35] He had retired to Broughty Ferry, Dundee and sailed his boat Saorsa on the Firth of Tay.

[5] Wilson died from a pulmonary embolism at the Roxburghe House hospice in Dundee on the morning of 25 June 2017, at the age of 79.

[41] His collection of historical nationalist pamphlets is held by the Macartney Library at SNP headquarters in Edinburgh.