Dr. Ambrose Cyril Wilson

Dr. Ambrose Cyril Wilson, who died in London on 7 October, 1957, was the eldest son of the Rev. Ambrose John Wilson, D.D., one time headmaster of Lancing College. He attended school in Melbourne, Australia, and at Lancing College, and qualified in medicine from St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1908. In the first World War he served first as Surgeon Lt. in the Royal Navy and then as Captain in the R.A.M.C. He was at Gallipoli.

After the war he left medical practice for a while in order to exercise his talent as an actor. For a year or two he was in the travelling company of the Drinkwater play Abraham Lincoln. Soon, however, he came back to medicine and held a post at the Ministry of Pensions.

Dr. Wilson had analysis with Dr. Robert Young, a Jungian, but changed over to Dr. Ernest Jones, with whom he was in analysis for two years. On account of financial strain there was an interval, during which time he toyed with the idea of going to Dr. Edward Glover, with whom he was on friendly terms. Eventually he went to Dr. James Glover for about six months, after which he had seven years of analysis with Melanie Klein. He became an Associate Member of the Society in 1922, a Member in 1923, and was on the Clinic staff until 1945. Although Wilson never contributed significantly to psycho-analytic theory he did a good deal of original work on the paternal aspects of the superego. This he never assembled in written form, nor could he be persuaded to write up his findings after his appointment by the Home Office to study homicide cases at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

The publications he listed were as follows:

• 1'Homosexuality'. Br. Med. Journal, 1946.

• 2'The Rôle of Fixation in Perversion and Masturbation'. Med. Press, 1947.

• 3'Deprivation of Initiative'. Br. Med. Journal, 1948.

Wilson was a close observer of the trend of medical opinion, and entered freely into correspondence on any matter concerning the interests of psycho-analysis. As Glover has commented: 'He had a f