The Antarctic explorer was born at Skelton in Cleveland, the son of Benjamin Wild, schoolmaster of Newcastle upon Tyne. After some naval service, Wild was accepted as an able seaman for Captain Scott's expedition in the Discovery in 1901. He was a member of the first ever sledge party to the high plateau, reaching 8,900 feet. When a member of the party was lost over an ice-cliff in a blizzard, Wild led the group back to safety.
In 1907, with Shackleton's return to the Antarctic in the Nimrod, Wild was one of the sledge party of four that went up the Beardmore Glacier and over the high plateau to the record latitude of 88 degrees 23 minutes South, one of the greatest sledging journeys ever made. Wild was a magnificent sledger, strong, energetic and durable. In 1911, he was with (Sir) Douglas Mawson's Australian expedition, during the hazardous wintering on the floating ice 17 miles from land.
His next journey to Antarctica was aboard Endurance with Shackleton in 1914; this time he was second in command, a position he relished. After the wreck of the ship by ice pressure, the explorers reached Elephant Island, whence Shackleton and five others made their epic boat journey to South Georgia to seek help. Wild was in charge of the rest of the party and Shackleton attributed the survival of the group in grim conditions to Wild's energy, initiative and resource. When Shackleton died in South Georgia in 1922 en route for the Weddell Sea in Quest, Wild took over command, but the ship was under-powered and the ice conditions bad. The expedition achieved little. This was Wild's last exploration and he settled down, most unwillingly, as a farmer in South Africa.