High Street, Tonbridge,
Kent, TN9 1JP
Maurice Wiles entered Tonbridge as a day boy in Welldon House in Michaelmas Term 1936. He had a distinguished all-round school career. In his last year, 1941-2, he was Head of School and also played cricket for the 1st XI in 1941 as a leg-spinner and useful batsman. His passion for the game ensured that he continued playing village cricket until 1990. He left with a Judd Exhibition and a Classical Scholarship to Christ’s College, Cambridge but this was postponed as he was called up for war service. This was spent learning Japanese and working at Bletchley Park on breaking enemy military codes.
He went up to Cambridge in 1945, switching to read Moral Sciences and Theology, in which he gained a first. He moved to Ridley Hall, Cambridge to prepare for ordination. After a short period as a curate in the north west he moved back to Ridley Hall as Chaplain from 1952-1955. After a short period in Nigeria he was appointed Dean of Clare College and a university lecturer in Divinity, publishing his first general work ‘The Christian Fathers’ in 1966.
By now he was making a name as a leading theologian, publishing his most widely read book ‘The Making of Christian Doctrine’ in 1967. In the same year he became Professor of Christian Doctrine at King’s London. In 1970 Wiles moved to Oxford as Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, where he combined ecclesiastical and pastoral duties with the life of an academic. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1981and remained widely in demand as a lecturer at many universities. After retirement in 1991 he continued his writing and died in Oxford in 2005. His son, Sir Andrew Wiles, a mathematician, achieved fame by solving Fermat’s Last Theorem.