HIS figure is seen every day by rail travellers seemingly striding out across St George’s Square.
The much admired bronze statue of the Huddersfield-born former Prime Minister is a mark of the strong connections the statesman retained with his home town throughout his long and distinguished Parliamentary career.
Now Lord Wilson, who died in 1995 aged 79, is to be honoured with another memorial, this time in the company of many other former Premiers, in Westminster Abbey.
Whatever your view on his particular brand of politics, there is no doubt that Lord Wilson championed many causes which we perhaps take as a given in today’s society.
Under his leadership, the Government in the late Sixties and mid Seventies liberalised laws on censorship, divorce, abortion and homosexuality. In 1965, he abolished the death penalty.
Almost every UK prime minister before 1955 is remembered in Westminster Abbey and now there are plans to honour others who have led the country since then.
It is to be welcomed that Lord Wilson should be among the first. His widow, Lady Mary Wilson survives him, and it is fitting that this tribute be made in her lifetime.
