William 'Willie’ Wilson was a gifted stained-glass artist who established an international reputation following the Second World War.
Leaving school in his mid-teens he soon began working in the premier stained-glass studio in Scotland, A Ballantine & Son. Keen to develop his artistic potential, he attended evening classes at Edinburgh College of Art where he developed an interest in print-making. So skilled did he become that he was given a place to study full time.
An award-winning student, he used his prize-money to fund classes on engraving at the Royal College of Art in London and on stained glass making in Germany. In 1937 he established a studio with William Blair in Frederick Street, Edinburgh where they began producing the distinctive, highly coloured stained glass that would establish his international reputation.
The business grew in response to the demand for memorial windows for soldiers who had died in WWII, and in 1947 he moved his studio to Belford Mews, gathering around him a team of accomplished young assistants with whom he designed and produced more than 170 windows over the next 20 years.
Most of these were for churches with examples to be found throughout Scotland from Rosslyn Chapel to Dornoch Cathedral but he was also awarded commissions in England, New Zealand, Africa and North America.
Wilson was honoured during his lifetime for his contribution to the artistic life of Scotland; he was made an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1949 and was awarded an OBE in 1961. In 1970, five years after completing a window for Iona Abbey, he was forced to retire due to failing eyesight.
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