Frank Wiles was born in Cambridge, England, 1881. Frank Wiles was the son of sculptor Henry Wiles and the brother or W. G. Wiles. Prior to his arrival in SA in 1902, he studied in 1901 at the Cambridge School of Art, and in London under Walter Sickert (1860 - 1942). Frank first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1912, and continued to do so annually until 1930. Sickert's deft touch and suggestive treatment of form are hinted at in his work, which was regularly shown at the Royal Academy in London between 1912 and 1930. In 1914 Frank Wiles married Mabel Spencer Troughton and they had a daughter Janet Rosina and a son, Richard Francis.

Wiles received many private and official portrait commissions, including a number of Governors and Prime Ministers of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa. Since he limited himself to portrait work he did not attract as popular a following as his brother W.G. Wiles, but he was esteemed in official circles. He lived in Newlands in Cape Town, before moving to Kysna.In the late 1940s regularly contributed to SASA exhibitions. He died in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, 1963.

Exhibitor on SASA-reloted exhibitions c.1898 - 1950: 1947: SASA Members' Annual Exh., MMG, 9 - 22 Sep. 1948: SASA 45th Annual Exh. , MUG, 20 Apr. - I May. 1949: SASA 46th Annual Exh., MMG, 22 Apr. - 7 May. 1949: SASA Members' Annual Exh., MMG, 14-27 Sep. 1950: SASA 47th Annual Exh., MMG, (no specific dates), May. 1950: SASA Members' Annual Exh., MMG, 30 Aug. - 12 Sep.

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