Page 155 - They Also Served

71
Maurice Wilson 1917.
The son of a mill owner, Maurice Wilson
was born in Bradford on 21st April 1898.
Commissioned into the West Yorkshire
Regiment on 19th October 1917, he
served on the Western Front and was
awarded the MC as a 19-year-old: ‘He
held a post under very heavy shell and
machine gun fire. It was largely due to
his pluck and determination in holding
this post that the enemy advance was
held up’. However, in the Ypres sector
a few months later, he was seriously
wounded and invalided home, his left
arm remaining weaker for the rest of his life. Indeed, his unsuccessful attempts to secure a war disability pension left him with a loathing of officialdom.
Demobbed in 1919, Wilson became one of the ‘lost generation’ missing the camaraderie and excitement of war and drifting between jobs, in his case in London, New York and New Zealand, where he ran a women’s clothing shop. He was a highly successful businessman and amassed a small fortune, but happiness eluded him until 1932. After meeting a ‘mystic healer’ in London, Wilson underwent several weeks of fasting and prayer, using Christian beliefs mixed with Eastern mysticism. Having convinced himself that his ills were cured, he embarked on a campaign to educate the world on the benefits of his treatment. Believing that becoming the first man to conquer Everest would provide the perfect advertisement, he hatched a plan to fly a plane to the Himalayas, crash-land on the upper slopes of the mountain, and then walk the remainder of the way to the summit. That he could neither fly nor mountaineer were merely minor hurdles to be overcome. That nobody had even attempted to climb the mountain alone (indeed, this was not achieved until 1980) did not deter him either, and he was inspired by the heroic failure of the British Everest expeditions of Mallory and Irvine a decade before.
Wilson bought a De Havilland DH60 Moth, christened it Ever Wrest and learned to fly. Not a natural pilot, he had several bumps and a serious crash, which delayed his departure. During breaks from flying, he honed his mountaineering skills by walking
149