John Wild (cricketer, born 1915)

John Vernon Wild (26 April 1915 — 21 July 2012) was an English first-class cricketer, educator and colonial administrator in the Uganda Protectorate.

Early life and education
Wild was born at Wallasey in April 1915. He was educated at Taunton School, before matriculating to King's College, Cambridge. While studying at Cambridge, he played first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club in 1938, making eleven appearances. 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. As a batsman, he scored 193 runs at an average of 11.35, with a highest score of 34.

Career
After graduating from Cambridge, Wild joined the Colonial Service in the Protectorate of Uganda in 1938. He was commissioned into the British Army as a second lieutenant in September 1943. 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. He was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1955 Birthday Honours in recognition of his services in Uganda, and was later made a companion to the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1960 Birthday Honours. While in Uganda, Wild wrote three books on the country and became fluent in the Acholi dialect. 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.

Personal life
Wild died at the nursing home in which was resident in at Burwash in Sussex in July 2012.