| John Dennis Wilson MBE | |
| Birth Date: | 1943 |
| Birth Place: | Enfield, London, England |
| Death Place: | Thailand |
| Known For: | Television programmes on angling, author of many books on fishing |
John Dennis Wilson (1943 – 13 November 2018) was a British angler who had been involved with angling television production for over twenty years featuring on Channel 4 Television and more recently on the digital TV channel, Discovery Real Time. Wilson was voted 'The Greatest Angler of all Time' in a 2004 poll by readers of the Angling Times Newspaper.[1]
Wilson was born in Enfield, London, where he attended the Chace Boys School.[2] He fished on several local waters including the River Lea and later fished further afield. He had careers in hairdressing, the Merchant Navy and printing before opening his own fishing tackle shop based in Norwich in 1971.[3] Wilson lived at Great Witchingham, Norfolk, where he fished on his local River Wensum and owned his own lake complex before moving to Thailand in 2013.[4] [5] After living in Thailand for five years, Wilson announced his intention to move back to the UK.[6]
He was appointed an MBE in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours.[7]
Wilson died in Thailand on 13 November 2018 following a stroke two days previously.[8] A service in memory of Wilson took place at Norwich Cathedral on 24 May 2019.[9] [10]
Wilson was best known for his television programmes which cover coarse fishing, game fishing and sea angling. He had fished all over the world in locations such as the River Nile, Zambezi, Fraser River system and River Ebro as well as many locations within the UK. Target species were varied from coarse fish such as pike, perch and carp to exotic species such as sturgeon, shark and catfish.
Wilson's last series, John Wilson's Dream Fishing, aired in Autumn 2008 on Discovery Real Time. The series featured Wilson, his daughter Lisa Wilson and nephew Martin Bowler going 'dream' fishing across the world including New York State, Norway, Scotland and Wales.
Wilson was also an author on the subject with several published works, and wrote a column for the Sunday Express newspaper until 2009 and continued to write within the UK angling press.
In addition to his television and written work, Wilson had his own branded range of fishing tackle covering everything from fishing rods and fishing reels to sunglasses.