PERSONAL

Brian Wilson was born in 1943. He is a life long resident of Bangor and attended Trinity Primary School and Bangor Grammar School.

A former civil servant in the Department of Education Brian Wilson took a part – time degree at the Open University and in 1973 left the civil service to do a full – time Masters degree in Politics at the University of Strathclyde.

On completing the degree he returned to Northern Ireland to take up a lecturing post in Omagh Technical College in 1979 he transferred to the College of Business Studies (now BIFHE) as a lecturer in government and economics. He was a lecturer / senior lecturer at BIFHE for the next 24 years.

In 1979 he married Anne (Councillor Anne Wilson) whom he met when studying in Scotland . They have two children Scott born in 1980 and Allan 1982 along with two children Roy and Caroline from Anne's previous marriage.

He was elected mayor of North Down in 1993/1994 and Anne also became mayor 10 years later.

POLITICAL

For more than 30 years Brian Wilson has opposed discrimination and bigotry and worked for a just, tolerant and environmentally friendly Northern Ireland.

Even at school Brian was interested in politics and he was particularly concerned at the injustices and discrimination in Northern Ireland society .He became an active member of the Northern Ireland Labour Party campaigning for social reform.

With the decline of the NILP he joined the Alliance Party in 1975 and over the next twenty years served the party in many different roles including:

1977-1979 Party Organiser for Mid Ulster

1979 Delegate to Atkins Conference

1981-1997 Councillor for North Down

1982 Candidate for Assembly (North Down)

1996 Candidate for Northern Ireland Forum (North Down)

1997 Brian Wilson left the Alliance party and in 1998 stood unsuccessfully as an Independent in the North Down Assembly election.

2001 he was again elected as an Independent councillor for Bangor West -topping the poll for the forth successive election with 1871 votes (1.6 quotas)

2003 he again stood as an Independent for the Assembly increasing his share of the poll by 10% and finishing tenth out of 19 candidates on the first count.

2004 he joined the Green Party to highlight his increasing concern about environmental issues. The following year he became the first Green Party representative to be elected to public office in Northern Ireland when he again topped the poll in Bangor West.

BRIAN WILSON HAS ALSO SERVED AS:

Member of the Eastern Health Board and Health council.

Chairman of North Down Hospitals Committee.

Member of Rathmore Board of Governers.

Board of St. Columbanus College.

Member of South Eastern Education and Library Board.

Member of North Down District Policing Partnership.

Governer of North Down and Ards Institute.