Harry Gilmore Wilson was born in Ipswich, the eldest son of Gilmore Wilson, a general practitioner and superintendent of the Ipswich Hospital. Throughout his early life he was greatly influenced by his mother who was an Arts graduate from Sydney University and who possessed an intellect of rare luminosity. She resonated and reverberated intellectual challenges and loved the impact of ideas. She was a unique resource for Harry and her insight and perception of the human condition moulded Harry’s character.

He graduated MB BS in 1940, one of the initial graduates from the University of Queensland Medical School. After a year as RMO at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, he served three years in the Australian Army. On the sudden illness of his father in 1943, he was released from the Army, to take over responsibility for his father’s practice in Ipswich. He subsequently achieved his MRCP in 1951 and MA Qld in 1957 and was a member of the Cardiac Society for many years. Service to the College included membership of the Queensland State Committee 1958-64, and 1972-4, and Councillor, 1960-63.

He practised both as a general practitioner and as a general physician, but his love of and expertise in cardiology led to his appointment as one of the founding members of the Cardiac Clinic in Brisbane. At the South Brisbane Hospital, (later to be Princess Alexandra Hospital), Harry was appointed senior physician and continued with that appointment until his retirement.

On 10 March 1945 he married Betty Stephens; they had five children, four sons and a daughter, all of whom achieved distinction in their field. His sister Esther and brothers Chester and Brian were also doctors.

Harry worked in partnership in general practice whilst continuing as a physician from 1952 onwards. He was always polite and approachable. His colleagues and partners regarded it as one of the greater privileges of life to be able to learn from him by his instruction and example over the years. He had a vast and detailed knowledge of medicine, which he always kept up to date by reading for two to three hours every night, and beyond all this, his advice to patients was based on common sense and balanced opinion.

He was director of Cromwell College and also served on the board of Ipswich Grammar School for several years. His commitment and energy were recognised when the new science building at Ipswich Grammar was named after him.

Apart from medicine his love was English literature; he wrote many sonnets and later in life he spent happy hours in the library searching for the “Thousand best sonnets in English literature”. The result of his research has been published in book form, to the delight of his many friends and relatives.

Harry’s own words illustrate his philosophy and the dignity and acceptance with which he lived:

It is not death that conquers Man-
For all things on Earth must die.
The dead fail not, but we who live
And make no mark beneath the sky

And weep not for your brief, unkind,
Allotted span, decreed above;
But live that you may leave behind
Something of beauty truth and love.