Alwynne (Wyn) Wheeler was a British ichthyologist who was a curator at the Natural History Museum in London. He was educated at St Egbert’s College, Chingford, and Chingford County High School to Higher School Certificate level, and was unusual in that his subsequent scientific career was achieved despite his never having obtained a University degree. He joined the London Natural History Society at the age of 13 and served his National Service as a radiographer and medical photographer in the Royal Army Medical Corps in both the United Kingdom and Jamaica, where he joined the Natural History Society of Jamaica. On leaving the army he applied to the British Museum (Natural History) for a post as an Assistant in the Department of Zoology, starting on 1 June 1950 as an assistant in the Fish S