WILSON, John R. (1884-c. 1915) was born at Sunderland, Durham Co., England on 19 May 1884 and was educated there and at Bilton Grange College in Harrogate. He articled with Henderson & Hall, architects in Sunderland, from 1900 to 1906 and then joined Robert A. Briggs (1858-1916), a well-known Edwardian architect in London, where he worked as assistant for one year. Wilson left England in November 1907 and emigrated to Canada, settling in Victoria, B.C. and opening his own office there in August 1908. Two years later, in August 1910, he formed a partnership with Warren H. Milner, an experienced architect from Seattle, and their firm of Wilson & Milner specialized in the design of commercial buildings, hotels, apartment houses, theatres and schools. They maintained two offices, one in Seattle (headed by Milner), and one in Victoria, but only a few works by their firm have been located on Vancouver Island.
In 1912 Wilson was appointed as first Secretary of the British Columbia Society of Architects, and later served on the council of the Society. In 1913 he was hired by the prominent Canadian artist Emily Carr to design a residence for her in Victoria, but their working relationship quickly deteriorated amidst claims by Carr that she found Wilson to be "...a querulous, dictatorial man" (Emily Carr, House of All Sorts, 1944, 6-9). Wilson claimed to be a member of the Royal Inst. of British Architects, but this cannot be substantiated as his name is absent from Membership Records for the Institute in London, and he is missing from published lists of members in the R.I.B.A. Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (2001). The partnership of Wilson & Milner was dissolved after 1914, and no references have been found to Wilson's activity after 1915 (biog. & port. E.O.S. Scholefield, British Columbia, From the Earliest Times to the Present, 1914, iii, 540; biog. & port S.J. Clarke, British Columbia: Pictorial & Biographical, 1914, ii, 386-9; D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 359, 524)
John R. WILSON (works in Victoria unless noted)
BEACON STREET, at Thetis Lane, residence for Douglas J. Hallam, 1909; still standing in 2023 (Evening Post (Victoria), 18 Sept. 1909, 3; D. Luxton, Building The West, 2003, 359, illus.; inf. Jennifer Barr, Victoria)
ELFORD STREET, at Pandora Avenue, residence for Laura Heisterman, 1910; demol. c. 2016 (D. Luxton, Building The West, 2003, 359, illus.)
COLDHARBOUR ROAD, near Belmont Avenue, residence for Maurice Cane, 1911; demol. (inf. Jennifer Barr, Victoria)
St. ANDREW'S STREET, near Beacon Street, residence for John R. Wilson, architect, 1911, still standing in 2023 (inf. Jennifer Barr)
SAANICH, 'Harvey House', a student boarding house at St. Michael's University School, Richmond Road, 1911 (Daily Colonist [Victoria], 25 June 1911, Sunday Supplement, 12, descrip.)
SIMCOE STREET, residence for the artist Emily Carr, 1913; still standing in 2023 (This Old House: Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods, Vol. 2 - James Bay, 2005, 136-7, illus.)
WILSON & MILNER
MENZIES STREET, residence for William A. Lewthwaite, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 25 June 1913, 68)