John West Wilson (8 October 1816 – 24 May 1889) was a businessman and arts patron.

Biography

John West Wilson was born at Hull, United Kingdom. He was the son of Thomas Wilson (1792–1869), founder of the shipping company Thomas Wilson Sons & Co. which introduced scheduled services between

Hull, England Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...

and

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden in 1825 and ran steamers on the route between 1840 and 1842. John Wilson founded the firm JW Wilson at Gothenburg in 1844, operating it in conjunction with the existing family business to trade in corn, wood, paper, pulp and coal, while he also exported cattle there during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. In 1850 John Wilson opened a regular steamship service between Gothenburg and Hull, which proved particularly effective in transporting emigrants from northern Europe to America. In 1865 the company AB Göteborg-London was formed. In 1882 this became part of the Thule Company after Wilson became a partner in the latter. Wilson served on Gothenburg's city council from 1867 to 1886 as well as director of the Skandinaviska Kredit and vice chairman of the trade associations council. He was also treasurer of the Gothenburg Museum's board of directors and made many donations. Wilson died at

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Biography

References

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