Harold Wilson Lecture

The Harold Wilson Lecture is an annual public lecture hosted by the University of Huddersfield.

Each year the University welcomes a public figure to bring a lecture in honour of Lord Wilson.

Previous Harold Wilson Lectures

About Harold Wilson

Wilson won four General Elections, spending around eight years at 10 Downing Street and is the only post-war leader of any party to serve as prime minister on two separate occasions.

The Harold Wilson building was built in 1999 and is home to the School of Human and Health Sciences.

Harold Wilson Building Harold Wilson
  • Lord Harold Wilson was born on 11 March 1916, in Cowlersley, Huddersfield.
  • He won a scholarship to Oxford University.
  • In 1945 Harold Wilson turned to politics and was elected Labour MP for Ormskirk in Lancashire.
  • In 1963 he became leader of the Labour party.
  • At the 1964 General Election, Harold Wilson’s Labour Party won power.
  • Labour lost a general election in 1970.
  • Harold Wilson returned to power in 1974 until he stood down in 1976.
  • In 1983, he accepted a life peerage and took the title Baron Wilson of Rievaulx.

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown

Speaking at the 2018 Harold Wilson Lecture

“The starting point is to learn lessons from Harold Wilson’s life, so that no matter how important economic objectives are, your priorities are not that the successful run away with all the gains and that you have a social conscience that benefits people in need,”

Celebrating 100 years of Harold Wilson’s birth

The University of Huddersfield played a central role in events to mark the centenary of the birth of Harold Wilson.  They included a history tour that took his son and grandchildren to some of the childhood haunts of the famous former Prime Minister, including the terraced house in which Harold was born on 11 March, 1916.

Read more about the celebrations