James Malcolm Wilde

Jim was born on 8th March 1932, the only son of Albert and Violet Wilde. He was raised in a small village close to Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, England. He attended the local grammar school and in 1950 he commenced his medical school at the University of Leeds. He served 3 years with the British Royal Marines as a Surgeon Lieutenant for the Royal Navy before moving into General Practice; first working as an assistant GP in Portsmouth and Huddersfield before taking on a small dispensing practice in rural Norfolk, UK in 1962. At that time very few patients had access to a car and the only bus to town was twice a week on market days - that meant a lot of house calls.
In 1968, frustrated at the National Health Service, Jim emigrated to Canada and started as a GP in Deep Cove, North Vancouver for 13 years - before moving to Vancouver Island in 1981. Victoria Hospice was just getting going and Jim was foundational in the early years of the Hospice alongside Dr. Michael Downing. He worked at the Hospice for 30 years and was also instrumental in starting a Pain and Symptom Management Clinic at the BC Cancer Agency. A respected and well-loved local doctor, Jim dedicated fifty-seven years of his life to the profession he dearly loved and to the patients he cared for. He had the best bedside manner and a great, dry, British sense of humor. Jim will be remembered as a kind, compassionate doctor by the families of those he looked after; a patient, wonderful mentor by his students; and as a knowledgeable, generous, funny, and loyal physician by his colleagues.
He died on June 19th at home.
Donations if desired can be made to the BC Cancer Agency or a charity of choice.

BC Cancer Foundation