Edward Adrian Wilson ("Uncle Bill") (July 23, 1872 - March 29, 1912) was an English polar explorer, physician, naturalist and ornithologist.

Born and raised at the Crippetts farm near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Wilson attended Cheltenham College and went from there to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University. His statue is on the Promenade in Cheltenham, and there is a small standing exhibition commemorating him in the town's museum. At Gonville and Caius College the college's flag which Wilson took to the South Pole is preserved.

Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica. The first was from 1901 to 1904 under Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery, with Wilson acting as Junior Surgeon and Zoologist. He was then asked by Ernest Shackleton to join his expedition to Antarctica in 1907, but declined.

In 1910 Wilson set sail on the Terra Nova, again under Scott, as Chief of the Scientific Staff. In the winter of 1911 he made a journey, with Henry Robinson Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, to Cape Crozier to collect Emperor penguin embryos. He was one of the party of five men that reached the South Pole on January 18, 1912. All five died during the return journey.

The Edward Wilson primary school in Paddington, London is named after him.

External link

• Portrait of Edward Wilson in the Cheltenham Town Museum
• Biography of Edward Wilson with a good number of his paintings and drawings