Frank Clare Wilkinson was born in Wallasey on 31 August 1889. His father, also Frank, was a Liverpool pilot and his mother, Annie, née Clare, came from a family connected with shipping. Both his grandfathers were ship's captains. He was educated at Wallasey Grammar School and Liverpool University. He was house surgeon to Blair Bell and Robert Jones in 1914, before serving in the RAMC as a Captain in the Liverpool Merchants' Mobile Hospital (1915-18). After the war he became dental tutor at Liverpool University and later travelled abroad to become the first Professor of Dental Science in Melbourne. In 1933 he returned to England to become the first Professor of Dental Surgery in Manchester where he remained until 1939 when he was made Director of the Maxillo-Facial and Plastic Unit at the EMS Hospital at Baguley. He returned to Manchester for a short time until his final appointment as the first Professor of Dental Surgery at the Postgraduate Dental School in London where he remained until 1959. He held many other appointments and served on the Dental Committee of the Medical Research Council, the University Grants Committee and became Chairman of the Education Committee of the General Dental Council. He was an active member of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons and was elected Dean of that Faculty in 1953, when he served on the Council of the College until 1956. In that year he was awarded the CBE and in 1965 he received the Colyer Gold Medal. During his career he wrote many articles in the medical and dental journals. In 1917 he married Miss Tweedie and their daughter became a general practitioner in Christchurch, New Zealand. His favourite sport was yachting. He died on 22 August 1979.