THE Rev Peter Wylde, who has died aged 78, won a remarkable MC when serving with the Coldstream Guards in Italy, and was a Scot who lived in England but took great pride in the fact that his family hailed from Perthshire, which he frequently revisited.
Wylde's career was so unorthodox that it verged on the bizarre. Born on April 19, 1920, he was educated at Harrow where he won the senior classical scholarship and became head of the school. At Magdalen College, Oxford, he declared himself a conscientious objector on the outbreak of the Second World War and was directed to agricul-tural labour. However, his tutor at Magdalen was the author and Christian philosopher C S Lewis, who persuaded him that his attitude was mistaken. Wylde therefore enlisted and was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.
In September 1943 the 3rd Battalion, in which he was serving, landed in Italy at Salerno, where he was wounded but not seriously, and went on to battle through mountainous country tenaciously held by the Germans. By November the Coldstream had reached the key village of Calabritto. Wylde was Battalion Mortar Officer at that time but when the officer commanding the leading Guards platoon was wounded by a mine, promptly volunteered to take his place and subsequently led the platoon safely over heavily mined ground.
However, the Coldstream were then held up by a strong line of machine-gun posts, protected by wire and mines. The first attempt
to break through failed, mainly because of one particularly well-sited post. Wylde, accompanied by one other man, crawled through the wire and minefield, reached the post, and attacked it with grenades and Tommy-gun fire. When the defenders abandoned the post Wylde once more led the platoon over heavily mined and defended ground, threaded his way past obstacles, reached the village, disposed of a sentry with a grenade, and enabled the entire company to rush into the village, where they killed and captured many of the surprised enemy.
Wylde was wounded again later in the month and again the following January, as a result of which he lost a foot and a good portion of leg. After operations and recovery he completed his military career as assistant adjutant, then returned to Oxford, where he took his degree with first class honours.
In spite of his disability he then hitch-hiked round America, having various adventures such as being attacked by predatory birds in the wilds of the Midwest and earning money by working as a butler to rich American families.
After returning to England he joined the publishing firm of William Collins of Glasgow, but after a few years decided to take Holy Orders. After completing his training he worked as a curate and then went out to Zambia for six years. He then returned to Britain and worked for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for the next five years, before becoming Rector of Appleton, Oxfordshire, for 10 years. He also edited the Oxford Diocesan magazine, and gave an outstanding broadcast in the BBC's Thought For The Day programme which earned the admiration of millions.
In spite of his physical handicap he played tennis and danced well and led a very active life, but his friends were astonished when he announced at the age of 76 that he was going to make a parachute jump (his first) for the charity Prisoners Abroad, and would they please sponsor him? In spite of their efforts to dissuade him and the fact that the prospect terrified him, the more so as it was postponed several times, he accomplished it successfully.
Kind, caring, and immensely talented, Peter Wylde had no ambition but literally hundreds of friends. He never married.
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