Elected ARSA: 15 March 1939
Elected RSA: 19 February 1949
William Wilson RSA was born on the 21st of July 1905. He worked in stained-glass studio, Messrs. Ballantyne in 1920 and studied in evening classes at Edinburgh College of Art.
Upon winning the Royal Scottish Academy Carnegie Scholarship he travelled to Spain where he made a series of drawings, from which he later made many engravings and etchings. Wilson was also awarded a fellowship of the College of Art where he studied at the Royal College of Art in London for one year and drew in England and extensively in Italy.
On his return to Edinburgh, he opened his studio and began his career as a designer and maker of stained-glass windows. His reputation rapidly grew, and he was commissioned to execute windows in churches and commercial buildings including Canterbury Cathedral, Glasgow Cathedral, St Salvator’s Chapel, St Andrews Square, Edinburgh and is also represented in New Jersey (USA), New Zealand, Nairobi, Nyasaland, South Africa and Canada. Between 1945 and 1970 he executed about 150 church windows.
Wilson was elected ARSA in 1939 and RSA in 1949.
