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Born in [[Battersea]], London, he went to work on the railways and joined the [[National Union of Railwaymen]] in 1919. He joined the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], but after [[Black Friday (1921)|Black Friday]] moved to the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB). After studying with A. E. E. Reade, he came to support [[Leon Trotsky]] and the [[International Left Opposition]].
Elected to the executive of the [[Young Communist League (UK)|Young Communist League]] in 1926, Wicks attended the [[International Lenin School]] in [[Moscow]] and the Sixth World Congress of the [[Comintern]]. He began working with the [[Balham Group]] of [[Trotskyist]]s, and was expelled from the CPGB in 1932. He became a founding member of the [[Communist League (UK, 1932)|Communist League]] and met Trotsky in [[Copenhagen]] but disagreed with Trotsky's advice to join the [[Independent Labour Party]]. The Communist League split with the tendency opposed to joining the ILP continuing as the [[Marxist League (UK, 1936)|Marxist League]] (not to be confused with the earlier, unconnected Marxist League aka Marxian League of [[FA Ridley]] and [[Hugo Dewar]]), which later worked within the Labour Party. He also chaired the British Committee for the Defence of Leon Trotsky. In 1936, Wicks and several others signed a letter to the ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'' defending Trotsky's right to asylum and calling for an international inquiry into the [[Moscow Trials]].<ref>The other signatories were: [[H. N. Brailsford]], [[Conrad Noel]], [[Frank Horrabin]], Fred Shaw, Rowland Hill, [[Eleanor Rathbone]], Reg Groves, Garry Allingham and Stuart Purkis. [[Robert J. Alexander]], ''International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement''. Duke University Press, 1991 {{ISBN|082231066X}} (p. 451)</ref> Wicks was also an active [[anti-fascist]].<ref>Keith Hodgson,''Fighting Fascism: the British Left and the Rise of Fascism, 1919-39''.Manchester University Press, 2011 {{ISBN|071908055X}} (p. 163)</ref>
Wicks began working with [[C. L. R. James]] of the [[Marxist Group (UK)|Marxist Group]], helping James write [[World Revolution (book)|World Revolution]], his 1937 history of the [[Communist International]], and in 1938 their tendencies merged to form the [[Revolutionary Socialist League (UK, 1938)|Revolutionary Socialist League]]. However, Wicks and the remnants of the former Marxist League soon left and formed the Socialist Anti-War Federation. In 1940, this group dissolved and he joined the Independent Labour Party.
At the end of the Second World War, Wicks joined the Labour Party and became active in [[NALGO]]. In 1971, he became involved with the Trotskyist movement again, joining the forerunner of the [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|Socialist Workers Party]] (SWP), the International Socialists. He was part of the 1976 split which formed the [[Workers League (UK)|Workers League]]. He would later work with the SWP in various campaigns but never rejoined it.
Not long before his death he wrote an autobiography, ''Keeping My Head: The Memoirs of a British Bolshevik'', with the help of Logie Barrow.
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