Retired publicanpublicanwhowho rescued five people from fire also donated kidneys that saved woman
pub for a drink with shipyard pals in Govan, Glasgow, when he saw the fire and heard a woman screaming for help from a top-floor window.
Without a thought, he ripped off his jacket and ran into the blazing building where he covered the mother and baby with a blanket and led them and three others who were also trapped to safety.
But as he was leaving, a door blew out in the intense heat and set him alight. Richard ran out into the street and two barmen put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.
Mary, from Cardonald, said: “Typical Richard then headed into the pub for a pint but his friends took him to hospital where he spent a week being treated for burns to his arms.
“He was g iven a Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct. He was always thinking of others and, when the subject of organ donation came up in conversation later, he said he wanted his to go to someone who needed them.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think that day would come sooner rather than later.”
Last March, the Wilsons spent a day looking for gifts for their forthcoming silver wedding anniversary. That night Richard collapsed at home and died two days later, aged 72.
Mary, who met her husband when she was just 22 and he was 36, said: “Richard took me to Silverburn shopping centre to look at jewellery and watches for our anniversary.
“We had an Italian lunch and spent a pleasant af ternoon together, not realising it would be our last.
“That evening we went to my uncle’s wake in the chapel. Richard had to go outside during the service because he was feeling unwell but he seemed to recover quickly.
“When we got home, he took a cup of tea upstairs to the bedroom but later, when I called to him, he did not answer and, when I went into the
“We were al l told to say our goodbyes and I sat with him overnight. The surgeons all came in to see me and shook my hand and Richard’s too and said thank you and that it was an amazing thing he was doing.”
Her husband ran Richard’s Bar in Govan for nearly 40 years and Mary said her other half is still sorely missed by a great many people.
She said: “Everyone in Govan knew Richard. He was one of life’s characters and hard to forget. On the night we met, he paid the bus driver £20 to go early so I would miss the last bus and he could see me home.
“Richard was a Protestant from Govan and I was a Roman Catholic from the Gorbals so our relationship did not go down too well with either of our families but we stuck it out. We got married in a registry office in November 1994 followed by a chapel wedding in the December.”
Mary added: “He never made our silver wedding anniversary but hearing from the woman whose life he changed was the best anniversary gift – next to having him here – he could have given me.”