Ex-PM Harold Wilson 'suffering from Alzheimers' at No10

Nov 11 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FORMER prime minister, Huddersfield-born Harold Wilson, may have been suffering the early effects of Alzheimer’s disease when he resigned, research suggested.

Experts analysed and noted cognitive deterioration in the changing language in Commons speeches by the Premier in his final term of office.

The linguistic analysis of his performance at the dispatch box suggested the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease may have contributed to his decision to resign as British Prime Minister in April 1976.

Dr Peter Garrard, reader in neurology at the University of Southampton’s School of Medicine, previously demonstrated the presence of Alzheimer-like linguistic changes in the later writings of Dame Iris Murdoch.