From Australia’s Jewish Past: Ernest Samuel Marks CBE – sportsman, Sydney’s first Jewish Lord Mayor; wool buyer, politician, and community identity
Ernest was born on 7 May 1871 in West Maitland, New South Wales.
E.S. Marks
He and his brother Percy were the sons of Joseph and Elizabeth Marks. Joseph, who had been a storekeeper in London, emigrated to Australia in 1854. The family moved to Sydney in 1882, his father becoming a wool buyer. The boys were educated at Royston College, Darlinghurst.
Both Ernest and his brother were active within the Jewish community and early supporters of Zionism. The family regularly attended the Great Synagogue, and, interestingly, neither of the boys married.
Ernest became involved in athletics, serving as a founder and executive member of the New South Wales Amateur Athletic Association, secretary of The Amateur Athletic Union of Australasia and, as an athlete, he won more than forty trophies between 1888 and 1890. He became a foundation member of the New South Wales Sports Club, the International Amateur Athletic Foundation, Vice-chair of the New South Wales Olympic Council and the Australian Olympic Federation. He accompanied the Australian Olympic Teams to the 1908 London Games, the 1912 Stockholm Games and the 1932 Los Angeles Games. In October 1929, he became the inaugural Chair of the Australian-British Empire Games Committee and went on to be the Chair of the Organising Committee of the 1938 British Empire Games held in Sydney – now known as the Commonwealth Games.
Time did not stand still for Ernest. He was also involved in establishing sporting clubs and institutions such as North and East Sydney Amateur Swimming Clubs, Manly Surf Club, the New South Wales Amateur Swimming Association, and the Amateur Billiard Championship Committee. For fifty years, he sat on the Council of the New South Wales Rugby Union.
As well as all his sporting activities, his working day was spent in his father’s wool-buying business – Joseph Marks & Co. In 1889 and again in 1919, he became its managing director. With the outbreak of World War, Ernest became a member of the State Recruiting Committee and of the Citizens’ War Chest Fund Committee. He became a life governor of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1917 and was chair of the United Charities Fund. He joined the State Executive of the Australian Red Cross Society in 1927, becoming the NSW Division Deputy Chair – an organisation he served for twenty years. During the war, he was chair of the Red Cross Day Committee which raised more than one million pounds. He represented Australia at the International Red Cross Conference in Tokyo in 1926. He also became a vice-president of the St John Ambulance Association in 1938.
This was not all. By 1927, he joined the political arena, serving as a Nationalist member for North Sydney in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly until 1930. He had also been active in local government through the Civic Reform Association and served on the Sydney City Council from 1920 to 1927 and again from 1930 to 1947. He put his belief into practice by working through his position on the Council for the establishment of children’s playgrounds and by encouraging young people to participate in organised sport.
In 1930, Ernest was elected Sydney’s first Jewish Lord Mayor and, not being married, his sister Hilda – already one of Sydney’s leading hostesses – acted as the lady mayoress. She had earlier in her life compiled a booklet of Home Cookery and Jewish Recipes to raise funds for the Red Cross. It is noted that Ernest probably did more for amateur sports in Australia than any other person. He believed the one sure way to personal and national prosperity was to teach young people how to play.
Ernest was also involved in cultural activities, including the Jewish Literary and Debating Society and was a founder and office-bearer of the Shakespeare Society. Ernest was a past president of the Australian Jewish Historical Society from 1944 to 1947.
Ernest passed away in St Luke’s Hospital Elizabeth Bay on 2 December 1947 at the age of seventy-six. Sydney’s town hall flag was flown at half-mast on the day of his funeral. At the time of his passing, he was still associated with many of the organisations he had been part of for most of his life.
This remarkable man paved the way for so much of what sporting communities have today. In 1930, he received the prestigious award of Companion of the British Empire and, in 1938, was decorated by the King of Sweden for his services on the International Jury at the Stockholm Olympic Games and received the International Amateur Athletic Federation Veterans Medal. His large library of sporting books, together with a collection of literature and data on athletics, was presented to the Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW). In 1947, the Sydney Athletics Field was renamed the E S Marks Athletics Field.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:-
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Suzanne Rutland; Wikipedia; Obituaries Australia; NSW Parliament; State Library of NSW; Research Project – Bruce Stephen Coe University of Canberra
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