Ormond Wilson

George Hamish Ormond Wilson CMG (18 November 1907 – 17 April 1988) was a New Zealand Member of Parliament representing the Labour Party, farmer, author and Chairman of the Historic Places Trust.

[1][3] His great uncle was the MP James Wilson, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and the founder of the economist and chartered banks of Australia, India, and China.

[1][2] When he returned to New Zealand, he found that he had inherited his grandfather's 320 hectares (3.2 km2) farm, Mt Lees, located between Bulls and Sanson.

[1] First, he went to Washington in March 1939 for three days, where he met with Labour leaders, Congressmen, Senators and columnists; he was surprised how much interests was shown in him as a former Member of Parliament.

[1][2] He then visited Britain, where he met with old friends from his university days, and the journalists Kingsley Martin and Dick Crossman of the New Statesman.

[2] Travelling via Scandinavia, he obtained a visa for the Soviet Union and experienced an oppressive totalitarian socialist state first hand (he got into trouble taking a tourist photo of a photogenic building).

[6] Ormond Wilson met Labour Party MPs (Harry Holland, Michael Joseph Savage and James McCombs) at a luncheon at Government House hosted by the Governor-General Lord Bledisloe.

[1] Although Labour obtained a landslide victory in the election, Wilson lost against Edward Gordon of the National Party by 300 votes.

Mansford had a strained relationship with the National Party, since his 1935 election campaign in the Palmerston North electorate had contributed to the defeat of Jimmy Nash.

[1] The Wilsons gave their homestead and bush to the Crown and moved to Wellington in 1972; Mount Lees Reserve is now one of the most important natural areas administered by Manawatū District Council.