William Henry Wilkins | |
|---|---|
.png) InThe Sketch, 14 October 1896 | |
| Born | (1860-12-23)23 December 1860 Compton Martin, Somerset, England |
| Died | 22 December 1905(1905-12-22) (aged 44) Mayfair, London, England |
| Education | Clare College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Political party | Conservative |
William Henry Wilkins (1860–1905) was an English writer, best known as a royal biographer and campaigner forimmigration controls. He used the pseudonymW. H. de Winton.
Born atCompton Martin, Somerset, on 23 December 1860, he was son of Charles Wilkins, farmer, of Gurney Court, Somerset, and later of Mann's farm,Mortimer, Berkshire, where Wilkins passed much of his youth. His mother was Mary Ann Keel. After private education, he was employed in a bank atBrighton. EnteringClare College, Cambridge in 1884, he graduated B.A. in 1887, and proceeded M.A. in 1899.[1][2]
Initially considering holy orders, at the university Wilkins developed literary tastes and interested himself in politics. AConservative, he spoke frequently at theCambridge Union, of which he was vice-president in 1886.[1]
After leaving Cambridge, Wilkins acted for a time as private secretary to theEarl of Dunraven.[1] In 1891 Dunraven andArnold White set up the Association for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens (APIDA), and Wilkins acted as its secretary.[3] White and Dunraven had been active against immigration from at least 1886, and had hoped for parliamentary action. There was an "anti-alien" campaign by the LondonEvening News, and support from local MPs, and clergy including George Sale Reaney inStepney. There lacked any serious local support in the parts of east London most affected, and the public at large was indifferent. APIDA ceased to function in 1892.[4][5]
Wilkins then made a literary career in London. He died unmarried on 22 December 1905 at 3 Queen Street,Mayfair, London, and was buried inKensal Green cemetery.[1]
In 1890 Wilkins wrote in theNational Review that British workmen should be protected from "hordes of destitute Jews".[3] In 1891 he wrote about the immigration issue in the US, inThe Nineteenth Century.[6] He also did some field work in theEast End of London, observing hiring practices for recent immigrants in Goulston Street (Aldgate, covered by theWhitechapel area).[7] Proposals of the Earl of Dunraven for restricting immigration were written up by Wilkins inThe Alien Invasion (1892), with introduction byRobert Billing, in the "Social Questions of Today" series byMethuen & Co.[8] The recommendations in the book bore some relation to later measures in theAliens Act 1905.[1]
Wilkins argued against the admittance of Southern Europeans andAshkenazi Jews.[9] He also took up the issue ofsweated labour, finding contemporary caricatures of Jewish exploiters apt.[10] The contribution ofThe Alien Invasion to the immigration debate of the period, with the warnings Wilkins gave of the impact on British working class opinion, the spread of nationalities in view, and the appeal to rich British Jews to limit Jewish immigration in particular, is considered significant.[11] Dunraven wrote an article "The invasion of destitute aliens" inThe Nineteenth Century for June 1892.[12]
That year theTrades Union Congress had come down in favour of restricting Jewish immigration, and the book listed labour organisations favouring immigration controls.[13] An earlier work wasThe Traffic in Italian Children,[14] and Wilkins contributed a paper "The Italian Aspect" to Arnold White'sThe Destitute Alien in Great Britain (1892).[15] In 1893 Wilkins wrote a pamphlet for theWomen's Emancipation Union on sweated labour in the garment trade, particularly in the East End of London.[16]
In 1892, Wilkins edited, withHubert Crackanthorpe whom he knew from Cambridge, a short-lived monthly periodical,The Albemarle (9 nos.). He published four novels (two in collaboration) under the pseudonym of De Winton.St. Michael's Eve (1892, 2nd edition 1894) was a seriously intendedsociety novel. Then followedThe Forbidden Sacrifice (1893), set partly in Germany, partly in East London,[17]John Ellicombe's Temptation (1894, with the Hon. Julia Chetwynd), andThe Holy Estate: a study in morals (with Captain Francis Alexander Thatcher). With another Cambridge friend,Herbert Vivian, he wrote under his own nameThe Green Bay Tree (1894), which satirised the Cambridge and political life of the time and went through five editions.[1]
Wilkins came to knowIsabel Burton, and after her death wroteThe Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton (1897), a sympathetic memoir based mainly on her letters and autobiography. Wilkins also edited in 1898, by Lady Burton's direction, a revised and abbreviated version of herLife of Sir Richard Burton, and herThe Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau (1900), as well asRichard Burton's unpublishedThe Jew, the Gypsy, and El Islam (with preface and notes, containing part of ananti-Semitic manuscript left by Burton)[18] (1898), andWanderings in Three Continents (1901).[1] The version ofThe Jew, the Gypsy, and El Islam brought Wilkins into discussion with theBoard of Deputies of British Jews on what should be published of Burton's research onblood libels.[19] Burton's appendix on theDamascus affair of 1840 was omitted.[20]
AtLund University in Sweden Wilkins discovered in 1897 the unpublished correspondence betweenSophia Dorothea of Celle, the consort of George I, and her lover, CountPhilip Christopher Königsmarck. This research, backed up from the archives ofHanover and elsewhere, led toThe Love of an Uncrowned Queen, Queen Sophie Dorothea, Consort of George I, which appeared in 2 vols. in 1900 (revised edit. 1903). HisCaroline the Illustrious, Queen Consort of George II (2 vols. 1901; new edit. 1904), had less claim to originality.A Queen of Tears (2 vols. 1904), a biography ofCaroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and sister of George III of Great Britain, used research at Copenhagen and superseded the previous biography byFrederic Charles Lascelles Wraxall. For his last work,Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV (1905, 2 vols.), Wilkins had access, by Edward VII's permission, for the first time to the Fitzherbert papers atWindsor Castle, besides papers belonging toMaria Fitzherbert's family. Wilkins argued for the marriage withGeorge IV.[1]
In 1901 Wilkins editedSouth Africa a Century ago, letters ofLady Anne Barnard written 1797–1801 at theCape of Good Hope. Wilkins also publishedOur King and Queen, the Story of their Life, (1903, 2 vols.), a popular illustrated book onEdward VII andQueen Alexandra, and he wrote occasionally for periodicals.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Wilkins, William Henry".Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
