Duncan Wilson

Wilson was born on 12 August 1911 in Winchester to Archibald Edward Wilson, German teacher at Winchester College, and Ethel Wilson, daughter of banker and financier Felix Schuster.{{cite ODNB|title = Wilson, Sir (Archibald) Duncan (1911–1983), diplomatist|last1 = Wade-Gery|first1 = Robert|last2 = Wilkinson|first2 = Sarah|date = 2004|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/64933}} His father died during his childhood, in 1923. Wilson's youngest sister was the philosopher Mary Warnock.{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Andrew|title=The practical philosopher|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jul/19/society1|accessdate=2013-10-27|newspaper=The Guardian|date=19 July 2003}} Another younger sister, Grizel, married his Balliol friend, the historian and civil servant Michael Balfour.{{Cite web|date=2011-10-22|title=OBITUARY: Professor Michael Balfour|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-professor-michael-balfour-1603240.html|access-date=2021-07-20|website=The Independent|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Mary Warnock (1924–2019 ) {{!}} The Embryo Project Encyclopedia|url=https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/mary-warnock-1924-2019|access-date=2021-07-20|website=embryo.asu.edu}}

Wilson was educated at Sandroyd School then Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Classics.[http://www.holmesacourt.org/hac/636.htm Archibald Duncan Wilson] – holmesacourt.org

After his studies in Oxford he applied for the Diplomatic Service but due to a chest ailment was not successful. He then spent a year teaching in Westminster School and then joined the British Museum as assistant keeper in 1937.

During World War II, in which he served in the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Economic Warfare, the opportunity arose to join the Foreign Office. After the war, he served in Berlin for the Allied Control Commission for Germany.

He then specialized in Communist affairs and held the following positions:

• Charge d'affaires in Peking 1957–59
• Ambassador to Yugoslavia 1964–1968[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/43482/pages/9392 The London Gazette, 6 November 1964]
• Ambassador to the USSR 1968–1971[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44723/pages/12676 The London Gazette, 26 November 1968]

He retired from the diplomatic service in 1971 and was appointed Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. While at Corpus he was also Chairman of the Appeal Committee of Cambridge University and was instrumental in the procurement of a new building to house the Faculty of Music. He retired from the Mastership in 1980 and was succeeded by Michael McCrum.

Wilson married Elizabeth Fleming in 1937 and had three children. His daughter Elizabeth married Romanian pianist Radu Lupu. Wilson was a good friend of the composer Benjamin Britten and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Wilson died on 20 September 1983, aged 72, from complications following two heart attacks. At the time of his death, he had been working on a biography of Gilbert Murray, which his wife finished and published in 1988.

Wilson wrote several books including:

• Life and Times of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1970)
• Tito's Yugoslavia (1979)
• Leonard Woolf: A political biography, ed. Powell, (1978), {{ISBN|0-312-48001-6}}

• [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U170502 WILSON, Sir (Archibald) Duncan], Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012
• [http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=&docId=CS203787574&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 Sir Duncan Wilson] (obituary), The Times, London, 22 September 1983

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{{s-bef|before=Sir Michael Creswell}}

{{s-ttl|title=Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Belgrade

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{{s-ttl|title=Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Moscow

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{{succession box|title=Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|years=1971–1980|before=Sir Frank Lee|after=Michael McCrum}}

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Category:1911 births

Category:1983 deaths

Category:20th-century English male writers

Category:20th-century English non-fiction writers

Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Yugoslavia

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union

Category:English people of German descent

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Category:People educated at Sandroyd School

Category:People educated at Winchester College