Author: Maria Wilkin
Author: Maria Wilkin (born 1839)
Alternate Name(s): Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Chalmers (maiden name)
Biography: Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin was born on 4 November 1839 in Shahjehanpore, India, the daughter of army surgeon Alexander Chalmers and his wife Maria Frances Jane Bishop. When her father died in 1851, she and her siblings were left orphans in Bengal. In 1860, she married distinguished army officer Henry John Wilkin and the couple had a son and daughter. Major Wilkin, also known as "Peter Wilkin," served with the 11th Hussars in the Crimea, werved with the 7th Hussars during the Indian Rebellion, and was a noted sportsman. For her part, Wilkin was a noted beauty, with one account calling her "one of the most beautiful women of her time." The marriage appears to have been unhappy since one of the two filed for divorce in 1879 (though it does not appear to have been granted). She wrote two novels, Your Cousin's Ghost (1871) and The Shackles of an Old Love (1882), the latter under the pseudonym "Mara." In 1881, she lived with her husband and daughter in Brentford. Her husband died in 1891 in Brighton. Thereafter she cannot be traced.
References: British Census (1881); Limerick Reporter (18 May 1860); Western Morning News (5 March 1891)
Fiction Titles:
- Your Cousin's Ghost. 1 vol. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871.
- The Shackles of an Old Love. 1 vol. London: W. H. Allen, 1882.