Chris Wilding RIP

Chris Wilding
OP 1959
November 1942 - October 2026

With thanks to Tricia for sharing Chris' words

Chris Wilding was at PGS from 1952-59. Much to the dismay of the staff, he appeared in the Middle School the term after his brother Robin Wilding had left. The general opinion was ‘Oh no, not another Wilding to plague us!’

Chris' route into PGS from St Jude's in Southsea was slightly different. After having failed the entrance exam to the Lower School, he moved to Church Street Primary where his mother was school secretary at the time. Mrs Restall, the then Church Street Headmistress, told his mother to take him there for two terms and they would get him through the PGS entrance exam for the next year. He then became one of the very few pupils from Church Street, which was in the most deprived area of the city, to go to the Grammar School.

On leaving school, he started working for Lloyds Bank in a variety of branches in the Portsmouth area. Subsequently, he spent a number of years in Devon, working as Farm Accountant with a leading Farmhouse Cheesemaker in Newton St. Cyres.

After that, he spent many years with the Haynes Publishing Group of car manual fame. Firstly as Sales Office Manager and then as Export Sales Manager with Northern Europe (as far as Helsinki) being his main responsibility.

In the 1990s, the bottom was falling out of the car manual market, and for the rest of his working life, he was the Manager of one of the coaching subsidiaries of the Wilts and Dorset Bus Co.

He was commissioned in 457 Regt, Royal Artillery and was subsequently in the Army Reserve for many years. Since retirement, he devoted many hours to the Canal and River Trust, firstly as a Volunteer Lockkeeper and subsequently as an adviser to their marketing department on signage and re-branding. He was also a huge supporter of his local church in Thornford near Sherborne.

He leaves two children, Emma and Jeremy, from his first marriage and his second wife, Tricia.