Former prime minister Harold Wilson is to be honoured with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey, the church announced.
Wilson, served as prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976. The ex-Labour leader will join a long line of former premiers who have been buried or memorialised in the abbey.
“Almost every UK prime minister from the first half of the 20th century is buried or memorialised in the abbey but so far none who held office since 1955,” said the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend John Hall.
“As part of our continuing commitment to our neighbours in the Palace of Westminster and Whitehall, it is appropriate for the abbey, where a memorial service for Lord Wilson was held in July 1995, to memorialise him alongside his distinguished predecessors.
“We have announced memorials to other prime ministers from the latter half of the 20th century, but Lord Wilson’s, whose widow is happily still with us, will be installed first.”
Wilson’s 96-year-old wife Mary was said by the family to be “very pleased” at the announcement.
The former premier was created Baron Wilson of Rievaulx when he left the House of Commons in 1983.
Wilson died in 1995 aged 79. He is buried in St. Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly, where he had a holiday home.
There are statues of him in his home town of Huddersfield and in his former constituency of Huyton outside Liverpool.
Harold Wilson to be honoured in Westminster Abbey
