Wilkes was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England[REF] and grew up in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, where his father worked on the estate of the Earl of Dudley.
He went on to read the Mathematical Tripos at St John's College, Cambridge from 1931-34, continuing to complete a PhD in physics on the topic of radio propagation of very long radio waves in the ionosphere in 1936 [REF].