Mark Wilks

Col. Mark Wilks

Mark Wilks was born in the Isle of Man and came from a long lineage of Manxmen. At the age of 18 he came to India on a military commission and was appointed to the Madras Army. He served as the Town Major at Fort Saint George, the capital of Madras Presidency and later he was appointed the acting president at Mysore. He was the author of the historical document entitled, Report on the Internal Administration of Mysore. This document was a continuation of report the survey of the Kingdom of Mysore undertaken by Col Colin Mackenzie. Mark Wilks was the uncle of Mark Cubbon who was the Commissioner of Mysore and after whom the Cubbon Park in Bangalore is named. After his return to England, Mark Wilks with the active help and co-operation of James Kirkpatrick, the East India Company President at Hyderabad, wrote one of the first histories of medieval South India: Historical Sketches of the South of India. This volume examined the rise of the Mysore Wodeyar Dynasty in the confusion following the fall of Vijayanagara in 1565.

Mark Wilks was also speaker of the House of Keys, the Manx Parliament, the oldest uninterrupted parliament in Europe. A portrait of Mark Wilks still hangs in the Parliament Building. He was appointed Governor of Saint Helena and the French Emperor, Napoleon is stated to have found Mark Wilks a highly engaging and affable man.