John Wild (cricketer, born 1915)
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | John Vernon Wild | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 26 April 1915 Wallasey, Cheshire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 21 July 2012 (aged 97) Burwash, Sussex, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm slow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1938 | Cambridge University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricinfo, 15 January 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John Vernon Wild CMG OBE (26 April 1915 — 21 July 2012) was an English first-class cricketer, educator and colonial administrator in the Uganda Protectorate.
Wild was born at Wallasey in April 1915. He was educated at Taunton School,[1] before matriculating to King's College, Cambridge.[2] While studying at Cambridge, he played first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club in 1938, making eleven appearances.[3] Playing primarily as a spin bowler in the Cambridge side, Wild took 29 wickets in his eleven matches at a bowling average of 36.10; he took two five wicket hauls, with best figures of six for 125.[4] As a batsman, he scored 193 runs at an average of 11.35, with a highest score of 34.[5]
Career
After graduating from Cambridge, Wild joined the Colonial Service in the Protectorate of Uganda in 1938.[1] He was commissioned into the British Army as a second lieutenant in September 1943.[6] He resumed his colonial service following the war, becoming the chairman of the Ugandan Committee on Self-Government in 1959, which came to be known as the Wild Committee.[1] He was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1955 Birthday Honours in recognition of his services in Uganda,[7] and was later made a companion to the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1960 Birthday Honours.[8] While in Uganda, Wild wrote three books on the country and became fluent in the Acholi dialect.[1] He left the Colonial Service in 1960 and returned to England, where he took up a post teaching maths at Hele's School, Exeter. He left there in 1971 to become a maths lecturer at Exeter College, where he remained until 1976.[1]