Page 84 - They Also Served

Returning home, Wilson was elected to parliament as MP for Hitchin in a 1933 by-election. Describing himself as a ‘left-wing radical Tory’, he tirelessly campaigned for veterans’ rights, compensation for injured workers, and pension reforms. Indeed, many of his ideas became policy under the 1945 Labour government. Like many former military men of his generation, he was attracted to National Socialism in Germany and fascism in Italy and was an outspoken supporter of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
However, Wilson’s patriotism was never in doubt, and, upon the outbreak of war, he immediately enlisted into the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a commissioned air gunner. Flying on operations, he was killed on 31st May 1940 when his Wellington Bomber was shot down while covering the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk. He was the third serving MP to be killed in the war and the oldest of the 55,573 bomber command casualties. Sir Arnold Wilson KCIE CSI CMG DSO MP is buried in Eringhem Churchyard near Dunkirk.
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