Herbert Haydon Wilson

Wilson was the youngest son of Sir Samuel Wilson, of Victoria, Australia.

He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Sherwood Rangers (Nottinghamshire Yeomanry) on 25 December 1895. Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, Wilson volunteered to serve in South Africa, and was in February 1900 appointed a lieutenant of the Imperial Yeomanry,{{London Gazette |issue=27160 |page=692 |date=2 February 1900}}{{London Gazette| issue=27163| supp=y|page=911| date=9 February 1900|}} where he served with the 3rd Battalion from 1900 to 1901 (twice Mentioned in Despatches). In March 1901, he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for gallantry in defence of posts in the Boer attack on Lichtenburg.{{London Gazette |issue=27307 |date=23 April 1901 |page=2775}} Promoted to a captain, he relinquished his commission with the 3rd Battalion on 18 July 1901 and was granted the honorary rank of captain in the Army.{{London Gazette| issue=27417 |page=1882 |date=18 March 1902}} He received the substantive rank of captain in the Sherwood Rangers on 20 December 1902.{{London Gazette |issue=27505 |date=19 December 1902 |page=8761}}

In the 1908 Olympics, he was a member of the British polo team Roehampton, which won the gold medal.

In 1911, he was an investor in J.M.P.F.W. Ltd., the company behind the Parker expedition to Jerusalem, who were looking for the Ark of the Covenant. His brothers Clarence Wilson and Gordon Chesney Wilson both went on the expedition.{{Cite book|last=Addison|first=Graham|title=Raiders of the Hidden Ark: The story of the Parker expedition to Jerusalem|publisher=Edgcumbe Press|year=2021|isbn=978-1-9196495-0-4|pages=210–11}}

Wilson was killed in action at age 42 during the First World War, serving as a captain with the Royal Horse Guards near Arras in the Second Battle of Arras. He was killed on the 11th April 1917 near the village of Monchy-le-Preux. Four regiments of the 3rd Cavalry Division were sent forward to exploit an anticipated breakthrough. They were the Royal Horse Guards, the 10th Hussars, and the Essex Yeomanry. They rode through a snowstorm to the frontline north of the village. There, they were met by deadly machine-gun fire and shelling and dismounted to create a defensive line. The cavalrymen took cover but had to tether their horses where they fought. Six hundred cavalrymen and many more horses became casualties. It was in this action that Herbert Wilson died, defending the small village against a German counter-attack. He was buried in the Faubourg D'Amiens Cemetery nearby.[http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/575407 Wilson, Herbert Hayden], Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Retrieved 28 September 2008{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi?id=65 |title=Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War |accessdate=3 August 2015 |work=Sports Reference |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107022804/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi?id=65 |archivedate=7 November 2014 }}

• List of Olympians killed in World War I

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070310022349/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=WILSOHER01 profile]
• http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/575407
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Category:1875 births

Category:1917 deaths

Category:English polo players

Category:Polo players at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Category:Olympic polo players for Great Britain

Category:Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain

Category:Royal Horse Guards officers

Category:British military personnel killed in World War I

Category:Roehampton Trophy

Category:International Polo Cup

Category:Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry officers

Category:Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Olympic medalists in polo