Wills was born on 19 August 1835 on the Molonglo Plain near modern-day Canberra, in the British penal colony (now the Australian state) of New South Wales, as the elder child of Horatio and Elizabeth (née McGuire) Wills. … See more

Wills returned to Australia aboard the Oneida steamship, arriving in Melbourne on 23 December 1856. The minor port city of his youth had … See more

After falling out with the MCC, Wills moved freely about Victoria, playing for any club of his choosing. He became president of Collingwood and … See more

Wills moved to the family home in Geelong. Always a black sheep of sorts, he became increasingly estranged from his mother and sister … See more

Rugby School
Wills' father sent him to England in February 1850, aged fourteen, to attend Rugby School, … See more

Wills was a compulsive writer to the press on cricketing matters and in the late 1850s his letters sometimes appeared on a daily basis. An agitator like his father, he used language "in the manner of a speaker declaiming forcefully from a platform". On 10 July 1858, the … See more

With plans underway for the first tour of Australia by an English cricket team, Wills announced his retirement from sport. At his father's beckoning, Wills agreed to leave Victoria to help … See more