Studied at the General Hospital, Birmingham, and at King's College Hospital, London. In 1841 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Stafford County Asylum until in 1855 he was appointed Commissioner in Lunacy on Lord Salisbury's recommendation. This post he resigned in 1878, but remained on the Board as an honorary member and continued a constant attendant in a characteristically conscientious spirit until shortly before his death, which occurred on December 8th, 1894, at 19 Queen's Gardens, Hyde Park. Publications: Wilkes published, along with WILLIAM HAMMOND, *Essays* - "I. On the Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the Great Sympathetic Nerve," by Wilkes; "II. On the Anatomy of Inguinal Hernia," by Hammond, being Prize Essays of the Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery, 1832.