{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Hector Mark Wilks''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MBE}} (1919,<ref name=ds>{{cite web |url=http://www.directorstats.co.uk/director/hector-wilks/ |title=Retired Chartered Surveyor Hector Mark Wilks |website=Directorstats |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107014852/http://www.directorstats.co.uk/director/hector-wilks/ |archivedate=7 November 2017|accessdate=15 March 2023}}</ref> - 1992<ref name=ekh>{{cite web |url=http://meetings.eastkenthousing.org.uk/Data/Council/19921125/Agenda/$COUNCIL%20(25-11-92)%202478.htm.pdf |title=Canterbury City Council Meeting Minutes, November 1992 |publisher=Canterbury City Council |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020223848/http://meetings.eastkenthousing.org.uk/Data/Council/19921125/Agenda/$COUNCIL%20(25-11-92)%202478.htm.pdf |archivedate=20 October 2018 |accessdate=15 March 2023}}</ref>) was an English botanist and conservationist. A retired chartered surveyor,<ref name=ds/> he was chairman of the Kent Trust for Nature Conservation.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fihg0GKtb3EC&dq=%22Hector+Wilks%22&pg=PA100 |title=Kent looks with fear to the future |journal=New Scientist |date=11 October 1973 |page=100 |accessdate=4 November 2017 |via=Google Books}}</ref> He was also a councillor on the Whitstable Urban District Council.<ref name=ekh/> He is perhaps best known for rediscovering the monkey orchid (''Orchis simia'') in Kent at a site near Faversham and subsequently introducing the species to Park Gate Down near Elham.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wilks, H M |date=1960 |title=The rediscovery of Orchis simia in Kent |journal=Transactions of the Kent Field Club |volume=1 |page=50-55}}</ref> The site near Faversham remains one of only two native sites for the monkey orchid in the British Isles and has remained closed to the public since its discovery. On 21 May 2007, Park Gate Down was renamed "The Hector Wilks Reserve" in recognition of his involvement with the reserve from its inception.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/park-gate-down-the-hector-wilks-reserve|title=Park Gate Down - The Hector Wilks Reserve |publisher=Kent Wildlife Trust |accessdate=13 August 2008|date=13 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107022941/http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/park-gate-down-the-hector-wilks-reserve|archive-date=7 November 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
His sister was the teacher Jean Wilks.{{cn|date=March 2023}}
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Hector}} Category:1992 deaths Category:English conservationists Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:1919 births Category:20th-century English botanists
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