Obituary. xi 



KENNETH WILSON, 1842-1920. 



Kenneth Wilson, M.A., was born at Leeds in 1842, the youngest son of 

 Thomas Wilson, M.A., Director of the A. and C. Canal Navigation Com- 

 pany. He entered the Leeds Grammar-school, completing his school educa- 

 tion there, and leaving with a scholarship which took him to St. John's 

 College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he took his degree, and at that place 

 he imbibed that pronounced appreciation of the classics of English literature 

 which he retained throughout his life. After leaving Cambridge Mr. Wilson 

 spent some years as assistant master at Mostyn House, Cheshire, and on 

 being offered a position on the staff of King Edward VI School at South- 

 ampton he accepted it, and remained there until he came, to New Zealand 

 in 1881 as Headmaster of Wellington College, with which he was connected 

 for many years. During this period many men now in Wellington and 

 elsewhere passed through the school, and they recall with friendly affection 

 the upright and distinguished figure of the Headmaster. For the last 

 thirty years of his life Mr. Wilson resided in Palmerston North ; his was 

 a familiar figure, and his devotion to the beloved classics provided one of 

 the few remaining links with that period of English University life when 

 the Classical Tripos represented the beginning and the end of educational 

 excellence. Though actively engaged in teaching during his residence in 

 Palmerston North, he found time for other pursuits, and in conjunction 

 with Mr. Welch was one of the founders of the Manawatu Philosophical 

 Society. He was President, and for eleven years Secretary, of the society, 

 and its members have good reason for remembering him, since it was 

 mainly due to his enthusiasm and tireless, patient work that the society 

 is in the strong position it occupies to-day. Mr. Wilson, who lost a son 

 in the war, died on the 10th October, 1920, aged seventy-eight years. 



Chas. T. Salmon. 



