John Dircks

DEATH NOTICE: see Cape Archives, MOOC 6/9/2563, No 3306.

Johann (John) Friederich Wilhelm Dircks was born in Hamburg (Germany) on 19 August 1848.

It is not known when he arrived in East London but that he worked for the firm Malcher and Malcomess -- later Malcomess and Company -- in East London and was the Vice-Consul for Germany in 1889.

Dircks was elected to the Town Council for Ward 2 in June 1883 but retired in February 1884 and was not re-elected.

This was the era of what contemporaries called the Great Depression which lasted some three years from 1883 till 1886. It thereafter came to an end as a result of the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand.

Dircks died on 2 January 1924 at the age of 75 and was buried at East London.