Background
The son of William Wylie, a block calico printer of Kilmarnock, by his wife Agnes, daughter of John Howie of Lochgoin, he was born at Kilmarnock on 24 February 1833.
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William Howe
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated there and on leaving school was employed in the office of the Kilmarnock Journal, and became local correspondent for the Glasgow North British Mail.
Career
In 1847-1850 he was sub-editor of the Ayr Advertiser. From Ayr, Wylie moved to Nottingham as editor of the ‘Nottingham Journal’ (1850-1852). In 1852-1853 he was sub-editor of the Liverpool Courier.
A system of his of reporting verbatim speeches by turns was put to the test during the Liverpool election contest of 1852.
In 1854-1855 he was editor of the Falkirk Herald and sub-editor of the Glasgow Commonwealth. In 1859 Wylie was president of the University Dialectic Society, and soon afterwards became a student at Regent"s Park College, London, under Joseph Angus.
In 1860 he was appointed Baptist minister of Ramsey, Huntingdonshire. And in 1865 he was transferred to Accrington in Lancashire, a charge he had to give up after a breakdown.
He went to Gourock; but when his health improved he accepted the pastorate of a church at Blackpool.
After another year"s work he had to give up preaching. Wylie resumed the profession of journalist, from 1870 to 1877 he acted as sub-editor of the Christian World, at the same time writing the parliamentary letter for the North British Mail and the Greenock Telegraph, which he edited more or less from the start. In 1882 Wylie founded in Glasgow the Christian Leader, and was editor and proprietor of the paper till his death, at Troon, Ayrshire, on 5 August 1891.
He was buried in Saint Andrew"s churchyard, Kilmarnock, where a monument was erected to his memory.
Politics
In politics he was a committed Liberal. In 1855 Wylie moved on to Edinburgh, where he became sub-editor of the Daily Express, at the same time contributing to the War Telegraph, and attending the classes at the university with a view to the ministry.
