Early life

Wilks was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 to English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 sea captain Joseph Henry Wilks and Susannah, née Harris. He was educated at Balmain Public School and, before establishing a wood and coal yard at Balmain

Balmain, New South Wales

Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....

, became associated with Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....

. He was elected to the council of the Free Trade Association of New South Wales in 1887, having already been president of the New South Wales Literary and Debating Societies' Union previously.

Wilks, a Freemason, was the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland

Grand Lodge of Scotland

The Grand Lodge of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was founded in 1736 – although only a third of all lodges were represented at the foundation meeting of the Grand Lodge....

 in 1888. He became involved in politics, being associated with the Loyal Orange Institution of New South Wales

Orange Institution

The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...

, and supported the entry of Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 into the New South Wales Parliament in 1891 due to his "strong democratic views". He himself was a member of the Free Trade Party

Free Trade Party

The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states and renamed the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906, was an Australian political party, formally organised between 1889 and 1909...

, and became associated with its more radical section, led by George Reid

George Reid (Australian politician)

Sir George Houstoun Reid, GCB, GCMG, KC was an Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales and the fourth Prime Minister of Australia....

. He married Florence Matilda Vincent in Sydney on 19 July 1894; later that year, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 for the Free Trade Party, representing the seat of North Balmain

Electoral district of Balmain

Balmain is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of New South Wales in Sydney's Inner West. It includes the suburbs and localities of Annandale, Balmain, Balmain East, Birchgrove, Forest Lodge, Glebe, Glebe Island, Haberfield, Leichhardt, Lilyfield, Rozelle,...

.

State politics

Wilks was a strong supporter of Premier Reid while in the New South Wales Parliament, and attempted unsuccessfully to defuse an 1899 censure motion against Reid with an amendment separating the issue of John Neild

John Neild

John Cash Neild was an English-born Australian politician who served as a Senator from New South Wales from 1901 to 1910....

's payment from the main motion. He also believed that the motion was motivated by an attempt to ensure that Reid did not become the first Prime Minister of Australia

Prime Minister of Australia

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

.

Federal politics

Wilks transferred to federal politics in the inaugural federal election in 1901, and was elected to the seat of Dalley

Division of Dalley

The Division of Dalley was an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It was abolished in 1969. It was named for the colonial politician William Dalley. It was located in the...

. He was whip

Whip (politics)

A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...

 in the 1904-1905 Reid government, and was useful to his leader in the controversies surrounding Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran. He was defeated by Labor in 1910, and became a land valuer in Melbourne until he retired in 1928. Following his wife Florence's death in 1926, he had married Edna Eunice Hinchcliffe in Melbourne on 6 August 1927. He died on 5 February 1940 at Camberwell

Camberwell, Victoria

Camberwell is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2006 Census, Camberwell had a population of 19,637....

, and was survived by his wife, and two sons and three daughters of his first marriage. He was buried at Box Hill

Box Hill, Victoria

Box Hill is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 14 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Whitehorse. At the 2006 Census, Box Hill had a population of 8,616....

.