In 1910, James Mollison Wilson (1887–1965) moved to London as assistant to Gibson Skipwith & Gordon and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. He then worked with Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, and in 1918 he became Deputy Director of Civil Works in Baghdad. In 1920 he became assistant Government Architect in Baghdad, and was then promoted to Director of Public Works in Iraq.
He worked extensively with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company when he was in the Middle East. Eventually, in the mid 1950s, he founded J M Wilson, H C Mason & Partners with H. C. Mason (1892–19). Wilson and Mason brought into Baghdad new architecture with consideration for the traditional style.