Obituaries Australia

  • Tip: searches only the name field
  • Tip: use double quotes to search for a phrase
  • Tip: lists of awards, schools, organisations etc

Browse People:

Browse Lists:

Cultural Advice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

In addition, some articles contain terms or views that were acceptable within mainstream Australian culture in the period in which they were written, but may no longer be considered appropriate.

These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Australian National University.

Alexander Marks (1838–1919)

By the death of Mr. Alexander Marks in Melbourne on the 21st inst. there passes away another of the old landmarks of early Melbourne Jewry. Although Mr. Marks took no very active part in communal affairs, yet as a personality he has been a conspicuous figure for many years in Melbourne Jewish life. Mr. Marks at one time, and for a long period, acted as Consul-General in Australia for Japan, and was, we believe, the first to hold that official position. Owing to the large interests he held in Japan, and his constant intercourse with the Government of the Japanese Empire, he was constituted as an authority on all affairs pertaining to the land of the Nippon. Mr. Marks, with his father, Mr. Casper Marks, an early Melbourne pioneer, and his two brothers, was in his younger days a Japanese trader, the business of the partnership being the forerunner of the gigantic interests now set up between Australia and Japan. The disappearance of the two brothers in 1871, while on a voyage from Yokohama to the Pacific Islands in the trading steamer Julia, will, like the Waratah, remain forever one of the mysteries of the Southern Seas.

Mr. Marks, who was eighty years of age at the time of his death, has left one son and daughter—Mr. Reginald Marks, who was chief mourner at the funeral on the 22nd inst., and Mrs. Septimus Levy, of Sydney.

Original publication

Additional Resources and Scholarship

Related Thematic Essay

Related Entries in NCB Sites

view family tree

Citation details

'Marks, Alexander (1838–1919)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/marks-alexander-19441/text30850, accessed 7 November 2024.

© Copyright Obituaries Australia, 2010-2024

Life Summary [details]

Birth

1838
New York, New York, United States of America

Death

21 May, 1919 (aged ~ 81)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Cause of Death

heart disease

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Religious Influence

Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.

Occupation or Descriptor
Key Events
Key Organisations