My friend and former colleague Trevor Wilson, who has died aged 96, was a Liberal party politician in Yorkshire from the early 1960s to the mid-80s.
A solid, non-confomist Yorkshire businessman, Trevor was elected to represent the woollen town of Elland on West Riding of Yorkshire county council in 1963, in a by-election caused by his father’s death.
After unsuccessfully contesting the 1964 general election in the Pudsey parliamentary constituency, he was elevated to become a county alderman in 1967 as leader of the Liberal group at the West Riding.
In 1973, when the authority was replaced by the West Yorkshire metropolitan county council, he continued as Liberal party leader until Margaret Thatcher abolished the metropolitan county councils in 1986. That year he was made CBE for his services to political and public life.
Trevor was born in Huddersfield as the only child of John, a chartered accountant and Liberal party councillor for Elland from 1929 to 1963, and Florence (nee Wilkinson), whose family owned the local Samuel Wilkinson brickworks. He began his secondary education at Elland grammar school, but in 1940, as German air raids began, he was sent, complete with gas mask, to Giggleswick school in a small West Riding village of the same name. In 1943 he went on to Balliol College, Oxford, where he joined the Liberal club and emerged with two degrees, in chemistry and inorganic chemistry.
After university he entered the family business in Elland until it closed in 1985, beginning on the production side and eventually ending up as chairman. Outside politics Trevor was a keen sportsman, playing cricket, rugby and golf and was involved in the scout movement, serving on the boards of a number of local charities, including Age UK and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
His leisure interests also involved leading mountaineering expeditions, including one to Everest Base Camp, going on annual ski trips until well into his 70s. and listening to opera.
Trevor Wilson, politician, born 21 August 1927, died 27 June 2024.
