WEEKES, Silas Henry (1853-1881) was active in London, Ont. and may have trained with George Craddock, with whom he later formed a partnership. Born in Okehampton, Co. Devon, England on 8 April 1853 he was the son of George Weekes, a cheese manufacturer in Carodoc Township near London. Weekes was said to have '....studied for his profession in some of the best offices in this country and in London, England' and he was '....well known to the people of St. Mary's, Ontario as a sculptor of considerable talent' (St. Mary's Argus, 13 March 1878, 2; advert., 3). He spent two years in Toronto before moving to London, Ont. where he formed a partnership with J.W. Smyth in early 1878. Together they planned the remarkable Scottish Baronial style Odd Fellow's Hall in St. Mary's, Ont. (1879). Their collaboration was shortlived however, and by June 1879 Weekes was invited by his former London employer George Craddock to form a new partnership (see list of works under Craddock & Weekes). Declining health and the onset of consumption forced Weekes to devote less time to his professional activities, and by mid-1880 their practise had been terminated. He left Ontario in September 1880 and was travelling in western Canada when he died at West Lynne, Manitoba on 27 March 1881 (death notice Winnipeg Daily Times, 28 March 1881, 4; obituary in Daily Advertiser [London], 5 April 1881, 3)
WEEKES & SMYTH
ST. MARY'S, ONT., Odd Fellow's Block [later called The St. Mary's Opera House], Water Street, 1879 (St. Mary's Argus, 13 Feb. 1879, 3, descrip.; L.W. Wilson & L. Pfaff, Early St. Mary's, 1981, 27, illus.)
WESTMINSTER TOWNSHIP, school house for S.S. 14, 1879 (Free Press [London], 11 March 1879, 2, t.c.)
S.H. WEEKES
KOMOKA, ONT., Primitive Methodist Church, 1880 (Daily Advertiser [London], 4 Oct. 1880, 3)