Oliver Charles Wilson was born in Rotherham in 1867. He joined the Sheffield Smelting Company in 1885 and became Director in 1896 and later Chairman in 1915.

He was a longstanding member of the Sheffield City Council from 1906-1925, becoming Chairman of the Health Committee and the Food Control Committee and serving as Lord Mayor, 1914-1915. He was involved in the temperance movement and became President of the Sheffield Band of Hope Union. He was also Honorary Secretary and Chairman of the Brightside Liberal Association and Chairman of the Executive of the Sheffield Liberal Federation and the North East Derbyshire Liberal Association. He was also Chairman of the Croft House Settlement in Sheffield.

He married Mary Dorothea Cooper in 1898 and the couple had five children: Joan, Donald, Peggy, Molly and Jack.

Original at Sheffield City Archives: MD2459/1/22/14 (alt. ref. MD2480/14).