Early Life
Paul Wild was born in Sheffield, England on 17 May 1923, the fourth son of wealthy cutlery manufacturer, Alwyn Wild, and his wife Bessie. But in that year, Alwyn's business collapsed and he went to the United States of America to sell his patents and technology for cutlery manufacture. In the event, he never returned. Bessie moved with her boys to Croydon, near London. About this Wild said "We went from riches to rags and the family was absolutely struggling" and "... right on the breadline, very, very poor." It was to be five or six years before a divorce settlement allowed the family to "live a reasonable middle-class life, reasonably well off". The only blight on an otherwise happy childhood was a year at a Sussex boarding school, Ardingly College, at age seven. But after successfully "plotting to get out" with his elder brother for four terms he spent the rest of his schooling at a Croydon independent school, Whitgift School.
Paul Wild's childhood may have been framed by the uncertainties of a father's absence, but the driving intellectual curiosity that was to distinguish him was evident from an early age. He said, " showed great appreciation if ever I was successful in anything but she didn't push me." He was interested in building things with model house kits, Meccano and cardboard; an early gift of a Hornby train from his mother started him on his lifelong love of trains. His first source of inspiration, which lasted through his life, was the engineering genius of the 19th century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
He became an avid player and follower of cricket while at school and into adulthood: in his later life he was known as "a walking encyclopaedia of cricket knowledge", eventually owning all but one edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
Wild developed a strong love of mathematics from a very early age. After matriculating he spent three years in the mathematical sixth form, most of the time on mathematics, with a little physics and world affairs. In free periods he and his friends would play bridge, under the chestnut trees in summertime. In an interview in 1992 he said: "We had three specialist mathematics teachers covering analysis, calculus and modern geometry, and I think I owe a lot to them."
Whitgift School is near what was then Croydon Aerodrome. In the summer of 1940, real excitement was added to the lives of the bridge-playing mathematics students: the Battle of Britain was going on overhead. "There was no sense of danger, it was all marvellous fun. Croydon was right in the thick of it, and we used to watch the air battles going on."
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