Jonathan Wills

Born 17 June 1947, Oxford
Elections 6 (4 won)
Bayanne Genealogy page

Dr. Jonathan Witney Garriock Wills is a Shetland journalist, author, broadcaster, political activist, Shetland Islands Councillor, mariner and wildlife expert, whose colourful career over the past forty years saw him elected as the first student to be Rector of the University of Edinburgh, Muckle Flugga Lighthouse boatman, Scotland correspondent for The Times, Senior Producer at BBC Radio Shetland, and editor of the Shetland Times, before he pioneered the e-media Shetland News. He has also held a number of public posts and has written books for children.

Biography

Wills is now a writer and freelance environmental consultant who has specialised in the oil industry for over 25 years. He is the author of A place in the sun - a study of the development of the oil terminal at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands of Scotland - and Innocent Passage - a detailed account of the wrecking of the tanker Braer in 1993. A frequent speaker at conferences on oil and the environment, he has also written and broadcast extensively about oil in Alaska. In his 1990 British TV documentary, 'Slick Operators', he revealed that the Exxon Valdez disaster could not have happened if the oil companies had implemented in Alaska the tanker surveillance scheme they had helped to set up in Shetland ten years earlier.

Dr Wills operates a wildlife tourism business around some of Shetland's finest seabird and seal colonies during the summer months, and is an honorary warden of the Noss Island National Nature Reserve. He holds MA and PhD degrees in Geography from the University of Edinburgh.

Political Career

Political career of Jonathan Wills
Year Election Council Votes Result
1974 1974 February UK General Election, Orkney and Shetland Result Parliament of the United Kingdom 2,865 Not elected
1974 1974 October UK General Election, Orkney and Shetland Result Parliament of the United Kingdom 2,175 Not elected
1993 Whiteness, Weisdale And Tingwall By-Election September 1993 Shetland Islands Council 388 Elected
1994 Shetland Islands Council Election May 1994 Shetland Islands Council Unopposed Elected
2008 Lerwick South By-Election February 2008 Shetland Islands Council 332 Elected
2012 Shetland Islands Council Election May 2012 (Lerwick South (SIC Constituency)) Shetland Islands Council 646 Elected

Offices Held

Shetland Islands Council
Preceded by
Amanda Westlake
Member for
Lerwick South (SIC Constituency)

2012–2012
Incumbent / seat abolished