Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/395

 the founders and one of the first vice-presidents of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, established in 1877. He was an active member of the London Farmers' Club, to which he contributed papers from time to time, and of which he was elected chairman in 1875. His advice was constantly sought in technical and legal inquiries, such as the questions of sewage and metropolitan water supply. He was one of the jurors of the International Exhibition of 1862, of the Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, and of the Health Exhibition of 1884.

Voelcker died on 5 Dec. 1884 at his house, 39 Argyll Road, Kensington. In 1852 he married at Frankfort Susanna Wilhelm of that city, who survived him; by her he had, with other children, two sons, John Augustus and William, who carried on his work; the former also succeeding to the posts of consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural and Bath and West of England societies.

Voelcker's work and writings were marked by thoroughness and clearness. Though leaving no special literary work or textbook, he was a busy writer of articles of a chemico-agricultural nature in scientific periodicals, and the journals of the Royal Agricultural Society testify to his activity as an author. Every half-yearly volume contains one or more papers from his pen, the whole forming a valuable compendium of articles on the application of chemistry to practical farming. Special mention may be made of the following: Several of his lectures were also published.
 * 1) ‘On Farmyard Manure.’
 * 2) ‘On Liquid Manure.’
 * 3) ‘On the Changes which Liquid Manure undergoes in contact with different Soils.’
 * 4) ‘On the Chemical Properties of Soils.’
 * 5) ‘On the Composition of Cheese.’
 * 6) ‘Cheese Experiments.’
 * 7) ‘On the Absorption of soluble Phosphate of Lime.’
 * 8) ‘On Milk.’
 * 9) ‘On the Absorption of Potash by Soils of known Composition.’
 * 10) ‘On the Changes which take place in the Field and Stack in Haymaking.’
 * 11) ‘On the Causes of the Benefits of Clover as a preparatory Crop for Wheat.’
 * 12) ‘On the Chemistry of Silesian Sugar-beets.’



VOKES, FREDERICK MORTIMER (1846–1888), actor and dancer, the son of Frederick Vokes, a costumier, was born in London, 22 Jan. 1846, and made at the Surrey in 1854 his first appearance as the boy in ‘Seeing Wright.’ Vokes and his two sisters Jessie and Victoria, subsequently joined by a third sister, Rosina, and by Walter Fawdon, who assumed the name of Vokes on joining the company, became known as the ‘Vokes children,’ a name which they afterwards changed for that of the ‘Vokes family.’ They made their first joint appearance 26 Dec. 1861 at Howard's Operetta House, Edinburgh. After playing at the Alhambra, they returned for six years to the country, playing at theatres and music halls. On 26 Dec. 1865 the family made at the Lyceum, in the pantomime of ‘Humpty Dumpty,’ a great sensation, Vokes's method of flinging his legs over the heads alternately of his two sisters being regarded as a marvellous feat. It led to the engagement of the Vokeses for the pantomime at Drury Lane, at which house during ten years the entire family appeared, playing always in the burlesque introduction and often in the harlequinade. On 28 Feb. 1870, in a farce at Drury Lane given by the Vokeses, and called ‘Phœbus's Fix,’ Frederick Vokes sang a song by Blanchard, ‘The Man on Wires.’ The same year he visited Paris, but had to leave on account of the war. At the Adelphi great success attended in August 1875 the ‘Belles of the Kitchen,’ a fanciful sketch that had been previously given at the Alhambra. On 15 June 1876 the family produced at the same house Blanchard's ‘Bunch of Berries,’ an altered version of which they presented at Brighton in April 1880. After the retirement of Rosina Vokes on her marriage, 14 April 1879, Frederick played with the remaining members of the family at the Aquarium Theatre in the ‘Rough Diamond’ and ‘Fun in a Fog,’ 2 April 1879. The last appearance of the family in the Drury Lane pantomime was Christmas 1879. Most of its members were in the pantomime at Covent Garden in 1880. Vokes married Bella, daughter of Mr. Moore of the Moore & Burgess minstrels, who played occasionally as one of the family. He made more than one visit with his sisters to the United States and Canada. In 1888 he was compelled by illness to forego his engagements, and on 3 June died of paralysis at the house of his sister Victoria. He was a fair comedian, a good dancer, and a wonderful pantomimist. With the rest of the Vokes family he is buried in Brompton cemetery.

(1853–1894), actress, sister of the preceding, was born in London.