664 John Wylie

Constituency  : Hereford  1868-9

John  recaptured  the   second  seat  at  Hereford  lost  in  1865.

John   was  the  son  of  an  army  officer  who  served  in  India.  He  was  educated  at  Cheltenham  and  Oxford.  He  was  a  civil  servant  in  the  Indian  service. In  1858  he  contracted  Gujarat  fever  which  permanently  affected  his  health. He  is  said  to  have  coined the phrase  "masterly  inactivity"  to  describe  the  the  policy  of  the  governor-general  Lord  Lawrence  in  a  magazine  article.

The  election  was  declared  void  in  1869  because  of  alleged  treating  by  his  agent. Having  resigned  his  post  in  India  he  became  a  journalist.

John  died  in   Paris  in  1870  aged  35  after  catching  a  chill  which  re-ignited  malarial  fever.