AN AMERICAN IN BOSNIA
Mark was born in Chicago to Earl Wheeler, a pilot in the US Navy, and Barbara Schmager, a window dresser. He had three siblings.
As a boy, he collected transport timetables and built up an encyclopaedic knowledge of how to travel round the USA. He could recite the quickest and cheapest way to get to anywhere in the country by train or plane.
Mark went to high school in Franklin Lakes in New Jersey and then his family moved to Michigan. Mark went with them and studied Central and Eastern European History at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating in 1970.
Mark married his high school sweetheart from his New Jersey days – Patty.
They then moved to England and lived in Swiss Cottage in London. Patty worked in banking.
Meanwhile, Mark went to Cambridge University to do his PhD, commuting from his home each day. His tutor was F.H. ‘Harry’ Hinsley, who had been a cryptographer at Bletchley Park during the war, and who had worked for the SOE (Special Operations Executive).
In 1975, Mark became a lecturer in European Studies at Lancaster University, where he became known as a knowledgeable and inspirational teacher. He was driven by the desire to ‘make a difference.’
However, now living apart, Mark and Patty divorced. She went on to become an international banker.
In 1980, Mark published a book, ‘Britain and the War for Yugoslavia’. It was so well-received that the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, appointed him the Official Historian of the SOE in Yugoslavia. It was a position he never gave up (technically he was still in position at his death).
The Special Operations Executive had been active throughout Europe during the Second World War. This included operations in Yugoslavia, supporting partisan Josip Tito in his fight against the Nazis.
Mark’s teacher at Cambridge, Professor Hinsley, had been active in the SOE in this region.
In 1983, Mark moved to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London, later to be part of UCL.
Mark married for a second tie, to Sheila O’Mahony and had two children, Lily and Harry. Mark was in his forties when his children were born. This marriage also ended in divorce.
He was still working in London when Yugoslavia collapsed in 1991-2. He regularly appeared in the British media commentating on the dramatic events in the region.
Along with other London universities, Mark hosted a seminar-cum-party, entitled ‘Breaking up is Hard to Do’, to discuss the future of Yugoslavia. It was co-hosted with historian Martin McCauley, who had monitored the collapse of the Soviet Union. The project was considered a success.
However, in 1994, disillusioned with academia and feeling he was not making any effective contribution to the political situation in the Balkans, Mark left the university to work with non-governmental organisations such as ‘HelpAge’ in Croatia and Bosnia.
Mark made a brief return to academia when he was appointed Dean and the Head of Humanities at Derby University. He found all his old grievances still remained, so he quit his new position soon afterwards.
Next, Mark worked for the ‘Institute of War and Peace Reporting’, as well as the United Nations in the aftermath of the Bosnian War. He then became the Bosnian Director of the International Crisis Group for two years.
In 2003, Mark was appointed to be political advisor to the Liberal peer, Lord Paddy Ashdown, who was made High Representative for Bosnia–Herzegovina. Mark was very active in the post-conflict period in the country, making a significant contribution.
Mark did lots of background work for the International Criminal Tribunal, uncovering war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. The most high-profile investigation was the ‘Vukovar’ case against Mile Mrksic.
This was an atrocity where 260 Croatian prisoners of war had been massacred by Serbian paramilitaries.
Based in Sarajevo, Mark worked for Paddy Ashdown for five years and had enormous respect for him. He always felt Ashdown’s voice was largely ignored and his suggestions for the future of the region (which Mark thought were excellent), were not listened to.
Mark stayed on for another four years, working for Ashdown’s three successors as High Representative for Bosnia. He thought they did the job competently – but none as well as Ashdown.
In 2008, Mark realised his eyesight was beginning to fail. He spent his final year in Sarajevo lecturing at the School of Science and Technology.
Mark retired in 2010 and donated 5,000 books of his to the National University Library in Sarajevo.
He decided to return to England, even though he still held an American passport. At no time did he ever apply for British naturalisation – although he refused to go back to the USA.
Mark moved to Wivelscombe in Somerset, to be close to his children and ex-wife, Sheila. There, he still occasionally wrote articles for political and historical magazines, and he did some editing. He was a reviewer for the ‘East European Politics and Societies Journal’.
He was accompanied everywhere by his beloved Dalmatian, Pepper (the family had always had pet Dalmatians back in the USA).
Mark loved classical music and was always playing it on CDs or on the radio in the car. However, his children got bored with his constant talk about Yugoslavia. Every time he mentioned it in the car, they would turn the radio on and listen to the pop charts. “It invaded my world”, he joked.
Mark owned a house in Croatia until 2017.
He also did a lot of voluntary work for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
At Mark’s death, Professor James Gow, a former student, close friend and lecturer at King’s College, said about Yugoslavia, “The world simply changed – and we all became all too familiar with atrocity and war crimes.”
Gow said, “Mark Wheeler was one of the great scholars of Yugoslavia and a profoundly engaged figure in the years after it’s dissolution…He had a passionate commitment to making a difference and preventing the events that affronted and angered him.”
RIP – Republics Into Peace
