Person    | Male  Born 8/1/1824  Died 23/9/1889

Wilkie Collins

Categories: Literature

William Wilkie Collins was a writer of thriller novels such as The Woman in White, The Moonstone. Born 11 New Cavendish Street. A great friend of Charles Dickens, to the extent that they grew beards together.

Seems he never married but for the last 20 years of his life he had two 'wives': Caroline Graves, whose pre-existing daughter he treated as his own, and Martha Rudd with whom he had two daughters and a son. His household with Graves was in Gloucester Place, that with Martha was nearby. Two of his daughters were named Harriet and we can't decided if that would have been convenient or confusing.

Died at home in 82 Wimpole Street. The map-tastic Londonist have plotted his life and his fiction on a map.

Sources include: Wikipedia.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Wilkie Collins

Commemorated ati

Wilkie Collins - Gloucester Place

William Wilkie Collins, 1824 - 1889, novelist, lived here. London County Council

Read More

Wilkie Collins - New Cavendish Street

Wilkie Collins, 1824 - 1889, Victorian novelist and author of 'The Woman in W...

Read More

Wine Office Court

The Rhymers' Club is not specifically mentioned on the plaque but Ye Olde Che...

Read More

Other Subjects

Joseph Ritson, FSA

Joseph Ritson, FSA

Literary antiquarian.  Born Co. Durham.  Trained as a lawyer and from 1780 had chambers in Gray's Inn where he specialised in conveyancing. Odd in a number of ways: aged 20 converted to vegetarian...

Person, History, Literature

1 memorial
Mabel Dearmer

Mabel Dearmer

Novelist, playwright, translator and illustrator.  Born Jessie Mabel Prichard White, daughter of Surgeon-Major William White. Her illustrations were accepted by the Yellow Book. 1892 married Percy ...

Person, Art, Literature, Theatre, Balkans

War dead, WW1
2 memorials
Sir Leslie Stephen

Sir Leslie Stephen

Scholar, writer and mountaineer. Born in Kensington Gore, (now 42 Hyde Park Gate). Father of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. He became an Anglican clergyman but later renounced his religious belie...

Person, Literature, Sport / Games, Switzerland

1 memorial
Dr Jose Rizal

Dr Jose Rizal

Writer and national hero of the Philippines during the Spanish colonial times. Born Laguna. Executed by firing squad in Manila. He was in London, working at the British Library, May 1888 to January...

Person, Execution, Jack the Ripper suspects, Literature, Nationalism, Philippines

1 memorial
Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano

Born in an African village, he was sold into slavery, first locally, then in England, then in America where he managed to buy his freedom. He returned to England and wrote the first autobiography o...

Person, Literature, Race Issues, Africa

6 memorials

Previously viewed

Hammersmith and Fulham plaque erectors

Hammersmith and Fulham plaque erectors

We've found a number of plaques in a similar and distinctive style around the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, but we have not been able to determine who erects them.  If it's the council they ar...

Group, History

6 memorials
Ted Masters

Ted Masters

Member of Eton Manor Boys Club who died in WW2 on active service.

Person

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
Leila Campbell

Leila Campbell

NW3, Eton Avenue, Hampstead Theatre

We captured the plaque in 2011 but failed to take a photo of the building showing the plaque in situ. It was 2017 before we managed to re...

1 subject commemorated
Barking Abbey

Barking Abbey

Former royal monastery. Founded by St Erkenwald, whose sister, Aethelburg, was the first abbess. Destroyed by the Danes it was rebuilt in the 10th century. William the Conqueror stayed here after h...

Building, Property, Religion

1 memorial
Simon Bolivar - stone plaque

Simon Bolivar - stone plaque

W1, Duke Street, 4

Simon Bolivar el libertador. The great Latin American statesman and patriot who liberated Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru & ...

1 subject commemorated