Name/Title
C B (Charles Burnett) WilsonDescription
Postal Card addressed to C.B. Wilson postmarked Dec 8, 1894
Charles Burnett "C.B." Wilson (4 July 1850 – 12 September 1926) was a British and Tahitian superintendent of the water works, fire chief under King Kalākaua, and Marshal of the Kingdom under Queen Liliʻuokalani.[1]
In 1866 Wilson joined the Honolulu Rifles, a militia unit. He was a Sergeant during the 1873 Barracks Revolt and was present in the standoff. He later joined the Royal Guard where he became one of a squad of personal bodyguards to King Kalākaua. During the Honolulu Courthouse riot, an election riot by supporters of Queen Emma, who attacked the Legislature, Wilson rescued four representatives, three in a carriage by preventing rioters from overturning it, and catching one representative that was thrown out a courthouse window. On 31 January 1876, Wilson made First Lieutenant and Captain on 16 March 1877.
After the death of King Kalākaua, Liliʻuokalani inherited the throne 29 January 1891. Wilson was appointed Marshal of the Kingdom 9 March that year. Wilson had a strong secular view of running the police forces and loosely regulated Christian-based laws on alcohol, gambling, and opium. He described these laws as "offenses created by statute, upon the commission of which the moral sense of the community apparently casts but little stigma."[2] On these matters warnings were issued for excessively inappropriate conduct, if not improved would lead to arrests. He supported legalizing opium to legitimize and better regulate the drug. Wilson's appointment to Marshal is still seen as a contradiction since the queen was a devout Christian.
After a failed negotiation with Thurston, Wilson began to collect his men for the confrontation. Wilson and Captain of the Royal Household Guard, Samuel Nowlein, had rallied a force of 496 men who were kept at hand to protect the Queen. However, concerned with the wellbeing of her woefully outnumbered men, she surrendered. Wilson was the last commander of the last garrison to surrender at HPD headquarters. In his battle plan he would have made use of the several artillery pieces and two Gatling machine guns of the royal guard, to compensate for their shortage in numbers.
Wilson went to Washington D.C. to lobby for the return of the monarchy even when the exiled Kingdom was dissolved by Liliʻuokalani under duress in 1895. He is regarded as the last of the former government to give up on restoration the Kingdom. Wilson joined the Hawaii Republican Party (formerly the Reform Party) believing it to be the only way to be an effective politician, but was kept a low ranking member.
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August 14, 2023Update Date
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