Ex-Prime Minister Harold Wilson Dies

Harold Wilson, a Yorkshireman who combined a common touch with an uncommon intellect that turned him into the British Labor Party’s most formidable vote getter and perennial prime minister, died early Wednesday morning in London. He was 79. Lady Wilson, his wife of 55 years, issued a statement saying he “died peacefully in his sleep around midnight.” The cause of death was not given, but Wilson is reported to have been fighting cancer for over a decade.

He was admitted to St. Thomas’s Hospital in central London on Sunday as a patient under the National Health Service, in keeping with his political image as a man of few pretensions and no taste for the lavish life.

In recent years Wilson - he was made a life peer in 1983 - had faded from public view, largely because of illness. He spoke only four times during debates in the House of Lords, most recently nine years ago, although he attended sessions faithfully until last year.