Horace Wilson (civil servant)
It was at this time he developed a reputation for resolving industrial disputes, a high point in this regard was his handling of the cotton crisis on 1929.
One great asset brought to bear in the arbitration of the disputes was reportedly his adherence to impartiality which was trusted by both employers and employees alike.
Success with the ministry caused Wilson to be appointed Chief Industrial Advisor to the Government in 1930 by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.
[1] At this point Wilson was to display his abilities on the international stage when travelling to the Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa, Canada.
[6] Indeed, Chamberlain's biographer Robert Self noted that the men "enjoyed the sort of unparalleled intimacy only possible among truly kindred spirits.
Wilson stated his pleasure at hearing that Adolf Hitler had referred to England and Germany as "two pillars upon which the European social order could rest".
Kordt urged Wilson that Chamberlain should broadcast to Germany and state unequivocally that Britain would assist the Czechs in resisting a Nazi invasion.
[1] His lone mission on 26 September to see Hitler followed the German leader issuing his Godesberg ultimatum to Czechoslovakia regarding the ceding of the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
Wilson was unable to deliver the second part of the message due to Hitler being in a bad mood, which left him impatient and irritable.
As Wohlthat left he reported Wilson as saying that "he saw the possibility of a common foreign and trade policy for the two greatest European states".
[3] Wilson was referred to in the book Guilty Men by Michael Foot, Frank Owen and Peter Howard (writing under the pseudonym 'Cato'), published in 1940 as an attack on public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany.
"[9] Just after the outbreak of war, John Colville joined the Downing Street staff as Chamberlain's Private Secretary in October 1939.
[14] In January 1944 Wilson was appointed by the Minister of Health to act as Chairman of the National Joint Council for Local Authorities' Administrative, Professional, Technical and Clerical Services.
Wilson told the meeting that "he was against all subservience and dictators, and all for freedom in thought and speech – even if it meant an independence which might annoy some of those in power at headquarters or locally".
[16] British journalist Leonard Mosley interviewed Wilson among numerous others for the 1969 book On Borrowed Time, about the months leading up to the outbreak of World War II.
Speaking to another journalist, Colin Cross, in 1968, 23 years after end of the war, Wilson is quoted as saying that he understood Hitler's feelings about the Jews.
In the book Wilson is portrayed as an arch-manipulator who has the telephones of all potential enemies to Neville Chamberlain tapped and will use any methods he can to get rid of Winston Churchill.
[citation needed] In the TV mini-series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) Wilson is depicted by the actor Clive Swift.
[18] This film is technically "fiction" though it adheres closely to historical facts and was made with input from professional historian and biographer Martin Gilbert.
