Hiram Wild


Hiram Wild was an English botanist who worked in Southern Rhodesia.
Wild studied at the Imperial College, University of London. In 1945 he wrote his Ph.D. thesis in which he examined the lettuce pathogen, Bremia lactucae. From 1945 he worked as the government botanist in Southern Rhodesia, and soon became head of the Government Herbarium of Southern Rhodesia. In 1960 Wild started the Herbarium botanical journal 'Kirkia', named for John Kirk, African explorer and companion of David Livingstone. In the ensuing years he worked as its chief editor. Wild, along with Arthur Wallis Exell, initiated the Flora Zambesiaca project, a series of monographs on the flora of Africa. In 1965 Wild was appointed professor at Salisbury University College, now known as the University of Zimbabwe.
In 1980, due to ill-health, he resigned as professor at Salisbury and returned to England.

Personal life

Hiram was the son of Hiram Wild and Margaret Hawksworth
He married Kathleen Mabel Jean Osborne in 1945.
They had one child.

Selected publications