Роберт Уилсон: Футболшы, жаттықтырушы және қайырымдастық жұмысы

Scottish footballer and broadcaster

Robert Primrose Wilson (born 30 October 1941) is a former Scotland international football goalkeeper and later broadcaster. Their Ashgate Road house was named "Threepwood" after the Galston, East Ayrshire farm where William Wilson was born. He spent time with Loughborough College.

Wilson started late as a professional player, as his father would not let him sign papers with Manchester United as he thought it was not a reasonable job whilst he was a youth. Wilson then went on to Loughborough College for training as a teacher. He had been playing reserve games for Wolverhampton Wanderers as an amateur between 1961 and 1963 and was the first amateur to have a transfer fee paid (£7,500). Wilson made his debut against Nottingham Forest on 26 October 1963 in a 4–2 win. However, being forced to play understudy to Jim Furnell, it was to be over four years until Wilson became first choice keeper in 1968, after Furnell made a mistake in an FA Cup tie against Birmingham City in March 1968. Wilson took over and remained in goal for Arsenal for the remainder of the 1967–68 season. Wilson was also selected for the match against the Netherlands on 1 December 1971, but Bobby Clark of Aberdeen was preferred after this.

After retiring, Wilson was goalkeeping coach for Arsenal for 28 years, during which Pat Jennings, John Lukic, and David Seaman were goalkeepers. He retired at the end of the 2002–03 season, having helped Arsenal win two more doubles in 1997–98 and 2001–02, as only one of two people to have been involved with all three, with the other being Pat Rice.

Wilson married Margaret "Megs" Miles on 25 July 1964 at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield, and they had three children: John (born 1965), Anna (1966–1998) and Robert (born 1968). John Wilson is a presenter on Front Row, the BBC Radio 4 arts programme. Megs Wilson died in November 2023. It was announced in April 2014 that Wilson was fighting prostate cancer. His middle name, Primrose, stems from a Scottish tradition of giving children their mother's maiden name as a middle name. Wilson's great niece is Gina Coladangelo, a British businesswoman and lobbyist who made headlines in 2021 after exposure of her extramarital affair with Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

In February 1994, his daughter Anna was diagnosed with malignant schwannoma, a cancer of the nerve sheath. She died on 1 December 1998, six days before her 32nd birthday. The "Willow Foundation" was set up in her memory in 1999 and operated locally, mainly in Hertfordshire. Wilson relaunched the charity on 4 October 2005 with a national remit. The organisation was established in Anna's memory and now helps some of the estimated 12,500 people in the UK, aged 16–40, who are diagnosed every year with the illness. In 2007, Wilson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his charity work.

In 1989, Wilson received an honorary award of Doctor of Letters from Loughborough University.