Louis Wilks was born on 11 November 1879 in Manchester, the fourth of ten children of Israel Joseph Wilks and his wife Mary King whose marriage in 1874 at the Park Place Synogogue, Manchester was formalised at Chorlton Register Office. Israel was born in 1849 in Telshi which is now in Kovno Province, Lithuania but was in Russia at the time of his birth. He appears to have emigrated to Britain during the 1860s and was first recorded in the Census of 2 April 1871 in Leyland, Lancashire where he was working as an india rubber waterproof garment maker. Louis's mother, Mary, was from Manchester.
Three children were born before Louis: Frederick on 13 June 1874, Francis on 30 December 1876 and Bernard on 26 February 1878, all in Manchester. When the Census was taken on 3 April 1881, the Wilks family were living at 14 Providence Street, near Oldham Road. Israel was recorded as a druggist's assistant and Mary was a sewing machinist. Another son, Charles Morris, was born on 20 January 1883. The children attended the Manchester Jews' School, Cheetham and by the time Francis was admitted on 16 March 1883, the family were living at 44 Elton Street, Lower Broughton. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born on 21 October 1884 but, sadly, Francis died the following year aged 8. The family had removed to nearby 10 Cambridge Street by the time that Louis was old enough to be admitted to school on 12 March 1886. Two more daughters were born soon after: Eveline in late 1886 and Edith on 16 May 1888. The Wilks family moved to Fleetwood shortly afterwards.
Israel carried on the business of manufacturing india rubber (waterproof) garments, at first in the Fylde Rubber Works on the corner of Blakiston Street and London Street but, after a major fire there in November 1889, from premises in Dock Street. When the Census was taken on 5 April 1891, Israel and Mary Wilks were living at 38 Victoria Street, Fleetwood together with their seven children. Another daughter, Millicent, was born on 16 October 1891. By the time of the next Census in 1901 the Wilks family had moved to 7 Poulton Road, Fleetwood.
Israel never lost contact with the north Manchester area and he owned property there whilst living in Fleetwood. In 1901 he entered into a business partnership with Philip Michael Cohen, the son of a Russian immigrant cap maker, to manufacture waterproof garments. It would appear that Israel provided finance and technical expertise whilst the 21 year old Philip provided the direction and day-to-day management of the business. At any rate, Cohen & Wilks was a great success. In ten years it expanded from a small factory employing six workers to a business with around 700 employees, mainly in two large factory sites: the Aquatite Mills in Derby Street, Cheetham and the Flamingo Mills in Park Street, Ardwick. By then the formal partnership had been dissolved although the business continued to trade under the name Cohen & Wilks, which had a growing international presence and reputation.
Israel had retired before the 1911 Census but his waterproof clothing business was carried on by three of his sons: Fred, Bernard and Charlie under the style Wilks Bros. The family moved back to north Manchester, close to their factory at Booth Street, Blackfriars.
Louis, however, had become a mariner and had married Julia O'Brien at Salford Registry Office on 15 September 1902. Julia was born in Navan, County Meath, Ireland on 1 January 1880. The couple set up home in Newton Heath where they had three children: Bernard (born 25 November 1902), Louis junior (born 15 August 1904) and Ivy Mary (born 29 January 1906). They then moved to our area. Son Frederick was born in Fleetwood on 1 February 1909 and daughter Evelyn in Preston on 12 August 1910. In the Census the following year, Louis, Julia and their five children were recorded at 20 Knowsley Street, Preston. Louis worked as a ship's steward.
A sixth child, who they named Norah, was born in Thornton on 4 June 1913. The 1914 Electoral Register records Louis at Bridge Terrace, Trunnah Road. He worked for United Alkali but we do not know in what capacity. Louis had joined the Royal Naval Reserve and shortly after war broke out he was mobilised on 1 August 1914. He sailed to the North Sea aboard HMS Iolaire and was aboard the Drifter Lily & Maggie the following winter when he contracted pneumonia. Louis was transferred to hospital in Stornoway, Outer Hebrides but sadly he died there on 14 November 1915. He was aged 35.
Deckhand Louis Wilks, 1249D/A, HM Drifter Lily & Maggie, Royal Naval Reserve, was buried in Plot A, Grave 884 at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Moston, Manchester. Julia and the children lived in north Manchester until the end of the war when they moved back to Fleetwood. She never remarried and died on 26 May 1964, aged 84.
As a footnote to this story, Cohen & Wilks went from strength to strength, aided in no small way by large scale military contracts during the war. By May 1924, when the public were offered shares in a newly formed holding company, it had assets of more than half a million pounds and employed around 2,500 people, excluding its travellers and agents throughout the world.
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