Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: WILKES, Arthur Hamilton Paget

Nee: son of Alpheus Paget Wilkes of the Japan Mission

Birth Date: 27 May 1898 Osaka, Japan

Death Date: 29 July 1955 Hong Kong

First Date: 1928

Profession: Missionary; planter. Raised funds for mission in Karamoja

Area: Kitale, Karamoja

Married: 1934 Eleanor Bridget Sylvia Perkins b. 24 Feb 1908 Croydon, d. 20 May 1995 Freshford, Somerset (later m. Marcus Stanley Reuss Broadbent 1899-1979)

Children: Charles F. (1935 Paddington); Shirley Anne (1937 Bedford-1956); Giles Digby B. (1947 Bath); Michael Jocelyn James (11 Dec 1941)

Book Reference: Joelson, Red 31, Hut

General Information:

Alpheus Paget Wilkes (19 January 1871 – 5 October 1934) was an English evangelical Christian missionary to Japan who was one of the founders of the Japan Evangelistic Band in 1903. In addition to extensive mission work in Japan, and touring South East Asia, he wrote a number of penetrating expositions of Christian scriptures. Wilkes was born on at Titchwell, Norfolk, the second son of Rev. Alpheus Wilkes and his wife Mary Davies. He was and brought up in Little Walsingham where his father, an austere evangelical from Yorkshire, was headmaster of the Grammar School and also vicar of West Barsham. His mother was the daughter of Henry Davies, bookseller, publisher and newspaper editor of Cheltenham. She was vivacious and nicknamed "y Deryn" for her lovely singing voice, while Wilkes was heavy and serious, a contrast that was too marked to make for harmony.
Paget Wilkes and his elder brother Lewis were initially taught at home in an environment of strict simplicity and discipline. Few pleasures were permitted, and little variety came into their lives. Their mother died when Paget was thirteen and following the remarriage of his father in 1886, the family home became a centre for highly religious spinsters.
Wilkes went to Bedford School and Lincoln College, Oxford. Inspired by a meeting led by Frederick Brotherton Meyer, he became a devoted Christian and during his three years at Oxford he spent part of his vacations in Christian work helping in the work of the Children's Special Service Mission. There was a strong Christian zeal at Oxford at the time, and in those ten years 60 missionaries went from Oxford. Wilkes was particularly inspired by Richard Reader Harris and his Pentecostal League. Paget Wilkes married Gertrude Hamilton Barthorp who supported him in loyally his work. Their son Arthur Hamilton Paget Wilkes became a missionary in Africa, RAF Chaplain and Anglican vicar. Their grandson Michael Paget-Wilkes is Archdeacon of Warwick. Paget Wilkes' brother Lewis Vaughan Wilkes founded and ran St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, a very influential prep school.  
Doing some research into 1939 point-to-points, I came across a report on the Puckeridge at Brent Pelham on 25th March:    "There was...a soldiers' race - for officers in the Eastern Command - and it was won by the sporting padre from the RAF depot at Cardington, who hunts his horses regularly with the Oakley hounds. In the second race his Saffron II had been second and now he rode his Irish horse Mike himself and won a good race by half a length from Lt.-Col. Scott's Tactician, who was supposed to be giving the winner 10lb., but Mr. Paget-Wilkes was carrying 15 lbs. Overweight."     
The Rev. Arthur Hamilton Paget-Wilkes was the son of a notable evangelical missionary to Japan, Alpheus, who published several works. His grandson, the Venerable Michael Paget-Wilkes, is the present Archdeacon of Warwick.
Joelson - An experiment in tobacco cultivation was begun in 1928 by about 30 planters, Mr Paget Wilkes, a planter with experience of tobacco in Nyasaland, acting as instructor, the prospects are considered good

Back to search results