Frank Wilson (12 May 1859 – 7 December 1918), was the ninth Premier of Western Australia, serving on two separate occasions – from 1910 to 1911 and then again from 1916 to 1917. Frank Wilson was born at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, England on 12 May 1859. He was educated in Sunderland, then Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, and finally at Wesley College, Sheffield. He was then apprenticed to Peacock Bros. and Sons, a Sunderland firm of shipbrokers and timber merchants. At the age of nineteen, he joined his brother in the establishment of an engineering works. Two years later, he married Annie Phillips. Wilson remained in the engineering business for eight years, until an engineering strike in 1886 caused the business substantial losses. The following year he sailed for Queensland, where he initially ran his own business, and later became manager of A. Overend and Company, a well-known firm of railway contractors, machinery merchants and flour millers. In October 1891, Wilson came to Perth, Western Australia to take up an appointment as managing director of the Canning Jarrah Timber Company, a position that he held until 1899. He became director of numerous other companies, and acted as a mining agent. For many years he was president of the Timber merchants and Saw Millers' Association, and from 1899 until 1902 he was president of the Perth Chamber of Commerce. In 1895, Wilson was elected to East Ward on the Perth City Council, and two years later was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Canning, where he sat in opposition to Premier John Forrest. In the general election of 1901, Wilson successfully contested the seat of Perth, his Canning seat having been abolished under the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899. On 21 November 1901, he was appointed Commissioner for Railways and Minister for Railways and Mines in Alf Morgans' government, but lost his seat to William Purkiss in the subsequent ministerial by-election. After unsuccessfully contesting the Claremont by-election on 11 June 1902, he was elected to the seat of Sussex at the 1904 state election, which he then held for over thirteen years. Wilson was Minister for Works for the duration of Cornthwaite Rason's government, from August 1905 until May 1906. He might then have become premier but stood aside in favour of Newton Moore. In Moore's ministry Wilson was initially appointed Colonial Treasurer, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for