[Note: A great amount of material – letters, papers, photographs, etc – concerning Max resides in the BC Archives, part of the Royal Victoria Museum in Victoria, BC. (www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca)]

Call Number: MS-1233; MS-0848; CM/B/14017; Map Reg. No. 14016B; Map Reg. No. 14032-14035 Creator-Author: Max Enke, 1885-1971
Title: Max Enke fonds

Max Enke (1884 – 1971) was my maternal grandfather and a fascinating man.  Here’s a bit of his story.  It’s sketchy because, although I have lots of written sources information, an invaluable live source was lost at the death of my mother in 2002.

Max was born March 12, 1884 in Manchester, England, the youngest of eight children, and, aged 86, died January 29, 1971 in Victoria, BC, Canada.  His parents, Hermann (1847-1926) and Caroline (nee Pöting) (1842-1899), were born in Germany but moved to England in the mid-1870s, and became naturalized citizens.  They subsequently moved to Belgium, in the 1890s, and set up a factory in Eeklo near Ghent, buying rabbit skins, treating them, and selling them to the felt hat trade.

Max’s siblings, in order of birth, were Friedrich Hermann (approx. 1875),  Paul (1874? possibly an error), Hermann Peter (1876), Paula Caroline (1877), Adeline Auguste (1877), Alice Wilhelmina (1878), and Willy (1882).  Paula and Adeline were twins.  Both Alice and Willy died within a few months of their birth.  Considering that Caroline had been delivered of a child in each year from 1874 onward, with twins in 1877, the deaths of Alice and Willy may have been a consequence; or they could have been due to early childhood illnesses which today would not have been fatal.  In any event, the arrival of Max in 1884 must have been a happy occasion.

Hermann was obviously an astute businessman, responsible for building a very successful enterprise which profited mightily following the end of the First World War by the increased civilian demand for clothing from the newly demobilized troops.  This allowed him, amongst other things, to build a large house, Oaklands, on the outskirts of Eeklo.

Max was sent to school first at Lady Barn House School in Manchester for his primary education and then to