Wilkes, Alfred John, LL.B. K.C., (Brantford, Ont.) is a distinguished member of the Ontario bar, and prominent in the commercial and social activities of his native City, where he was born on December 15, 1847. He is the son of the late Lieut.-Colonel James Wilkes, formerly City Treasurer of Brantford. His father was a native of Birmingham, England, who came to Canada in 1821, and carried on a mercantile business in the City of Toronto until 1823, (muddy Little York then had a population of 800 and only three brick houses), when he removed to the site of the present City of Brantford, continued his business as a general merchant, and was for twenty-six years City Treasurer. His mother, Eliza (Elliot) Wilkes, was a Canadian by birth. Educated at the Public and High Schools of Brantford until the age of sixteen, the subject of this sketch matriculated at Osgoode Hall, at the age of sixteen, and commenced the study of law, being articled to Hon. S. H. Blake, of the then legal firm of Blake, Kerr, and Wells, Toronto, and was called to the bar in 1869, heading the list, at the early age of twenty-one. Subsequently the degree of LL.B. was conferred on him by Toronto University on passing the usual examinations. Returning to Brantford on being admitted to the bar, he entered into practice with the late Daniel Brooke, for three years. Then, after practising one year alone, he formed a partnership with Hon. Arthur Sturgis Hardy, late Premier of Ontario, which continued from 1873 to 1898. In 1890 Mr. Wilkes was created a Queen’s Counsel by the Ontario Government, a distinction richly merited. In 1894 he became Acting County Crown Attorney, and five years afterwards was appointed to that office, and on the 3rd of January, 1885, was gazetted Deputy Judge of Brant County, acting for the late Judge Jones, once for three months and again for six months. Mr. Wilkes enjoys an enviable distinction in the legal profession and has long had a large and successful practice; was City Solicitor, in partnership with Hon. A. S. Hardy, and later also with Lt.-Col. Jones and the present Judge Alex. D. Hardy of Brant County from 1873, and only recently resigned on account of advancing years; was also solicitor for Waterous Engine Works Company and for late Bank of B.N.A., and was and now is solicitor for the Bank of Montreal, with which that bank is amalgamated, and many other corporations doing business in the City of Brantford. Always taking a deep interest in educational matters, Mr. Wilkes was for many years a member of the School Board of the City of Brantford, and for four years Chairman. He has had an extended military career, was an ensign in the Reserve Militia in his early years, and was also for many years a Captain in the 38th Dufferin Rifles. He assisted in forming the 25th Brant Dragoons, of which he was gazetted Lieut.-Col., retiring retaining the rank of Lieut.-Col. Mr. Wilkes is a Director of the Royal Loan and Savings Company, and Vice-President of the Manufacturers Life Assurance Company, and interested in many other large financial institutions. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Institute, a Mason, being Past Master of Doric Lodge, and has long been prominently identified with the Canadian Order of Foresters, having been High Court Solicitor. From 1897 to 1901 he was Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. A member of the Church of England, and for several years a Churchwarden. Before his acceptance of the office of County Crown Attorney he was a Liberal in politics. He is a member of the Brantford Club, University Club, Military Institute, and the Empire Club, Toronto. Married, June 22, 1887, to Esther Frances, daughter of Francis H. Haycock, late Collector of Customs at Paris, Ontario, and his family comprise Marjorie H. (wife of Lieut.-Col. F. Logie Armstrong, O.B.E.), Captain A. Burton Wilkes, overseas with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, Captain F. Hilton Wilkes, with Royal Canadian Dragoons in France, Captain J. F. Ransom Wilkes, late of Military Headquarters Staff, Toronto, now of Can. Siberian Expeditionary Force, Vladivostok, Russia, and Miss E. Gwendolyn Wilkes.
Jno. E. Askwith, OTTAWA
Thomas Birkett, OTTAWA
Workman, Mark (Montreal, Que.), was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on August 4, 1864, the son of Isaac and Sarah (Rosenthal) Workman. He received his education in the public schools, and came to Montreal with his father in 1876, joining with him in the clothing business. The lad became the head of the business in 1880, at the remarkably youthful age of sixteen years. With unusual business instinct and untiring industry, the young Workman piloted his enterprise along the course of steady growth until, in 1906, the company of which he remained head was incorporated, and expanded until its travellers covered the whole of Canada, from Atlantic to Pacific. For nearly twenty years now (1917) the Mark Workman Company has been contractors for the British and Canadian Governments for military clothing, and has been responsible for many enormous contracts during the present war. Beyond the confines of his own business, Mr. Workman also found scope for his enterprise and ability. He interested himself extensively in Canadian industry, notably the Dominion Steel Corporation, of which he is one of the largest shareholders and was elected President in 1916. Endowed with foresight and courage, attributes which helped to raise him to his enviable position in the business world, he believed that the formation of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, with its adjunct, the Dominion Coal Company, would not only open the way for a gigantic steel enterprise in Canada which would take care of the big domestic business in the Dominion, but also extend to other parts of the Empire and to foreign countries. He believed in the future of the undertaking, invested money in it, fought it successfully through the dark days of its early experience, and won out. In 1911 he became a director of the Corporation, and his active interest in the management resulted in his being made chairman of the finance and selling committees of the directorate. Mr. Workman is also the Vice-President of the Federal Parquetry Company, of Lexington, Ky.; vice-president of the Jacobs Asbestos Company, Ltd., of Thetford Mines, Que., and is interested in the B. Gardner Company, of Montreal. While the success that came to Mr. Workman brought him great wealth and influence, his business activities did not prevent a generous and personal interest in many charitable works, his yearly benefactions to worthy causes and individuals being estimated at fifty to sixty thousand dollars. He is a life Governor of the Montreal General Hospital and other hospitals and charitable institutions, to the funds of which he is a liberal contributor. He has given most generously to the Patriotic Fund and to the various regimental funds, and was a subscriber to the extent of $200,000 to the Canadian War Loan. Mr. Workman is also prominent in philanthropic work among the Jewish population of Canada and is president and actual upbuilder of the Mount Sinai Sanatorium for fighting the white plague. A sample of his deep interest in the race was his remarkable response to the appeal of Mr. Leopold Rothschild since the outbreak of the war on behalf of Jewish sufferers in Russia. Mr. Workman forwarded an immediate cash contribution of $5,000, with an appended offer to supplement that gift by the subscription of $1,000 per month. Mr. Workman married, when twenty years of age, Miss Rachel Lewis, of Syracuse, N.Y., on February 18, 1886. He has one son, Edward, a Lieut. in the Canadian overseas army, and four daughters, Mrs. Nathan Gordon, of Montreal; Mrs. Harry Rosenthal, of Ottawa, and the Misses Nina and Daisy Workman. He is a member of the Masonic and the Royal Guardians.