He was educated at Brambletye School, then Sheikh Bagh Preparatory School in Kashmir, then school in Cheltenham, followed by a period as a commissioned officer in the Royal Marines form where he was invalided out in 1947, progressing to Brasenose College, Oxford. His later work on Tristan da Cunha led to his Doctor of Philosophy thesis on the vegetation of Gough Island, received from Queen"s University, Belfast.
At Brasenose Wace read Agricultural Economics, switching to Botany. Wace"s periods in Tristan da Cunha started with his membership as botanist of the Gough Island Scientific Survey from 1955-1956. In Australia Wace made a substantial contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, both in settled parts and in the outback.
Wace"s family claims descent from Wace, the 12th-century Jerseyman and chronicler of the House of Normandy.
He was employed by the Geography department of Adelaide University, moving later to the Australian National University at Canberra where he was initially a lecturer subsequently head of the university"s department of Biogeography and Geomorphology.
