Frank Hook was born in Grays Thurrock, Essex, England, on 22nd March 1904, the son of George and Edith Ellen Hook (née Barter). Her father was a builder’s machinist.
His parents immigrated to Canada in 1907, and settled in Toronto, Ontario, where Frank's father obtained work in a metal foundry. He had an older sister named Elsie May, who was born in 1903. The family home there was in Millicrest Street.
In the autumn of 1913, Frank's mother had died and by the spring of 1915, his father decided to return to England with the two children. Since his wife's death, the family housekeeper had been another Englishwoman, Mrs. Annie Marsh, but she had also decided to return to England with her husband and infant child, travelling third class.
Initially, George Hook had intended to travel second cabin, with his children, but instead booked third class tickets for them all on the
Lusitania, so that they could be with the Marsh family. The vessel was due to sail from New York on the morning of 1st May 1915 and at the end of April, having sold the family home, the Hooks set out for New York! They arrived there in time for the sailing, which was delayed until the early afternoon.
The crossing of the Atlantic was fairly uneventful and they all enjoyed the opulence of their temporary surroundings, becoming particularly friendly with two other third class passengers, Gerda Neilson and Jack Welsh.
When the ship was first struck by Schwieger’s torpedo, the Hook family had been separated, but George Hook quickly gathered his children around him and fearing that the already overcrowded lifeboats represented danger, he waited until the level of the deck was almost at the level of the sea and encouraged Elsie and Frank to jump with him.
As Frank jumped, he was struck by a descending lifeboat which had been badly launched from the side of the ship and his leg was broken at the thigh. Separated from his father and sister as the ship sank, he was plucked out of the water by some crew members who had managed to get into a collapsible boat. The occupants of this craft were eventually picked up by the Royal Naval trawler H.M.S.
Brock.
One of them was Chief Electrician George Hutchinson, who came from Frodsham in Cheshire, and on his return home, he related his experiences to a reporter from
The Cheshire Observer and these were published in the edition for Saturday 15th May 1915. The part relating to Frank Hook stated: -
On this trawler he found a doctor was among the survivors and he rendered great and valuable assistance. "I felt fit and helped him". Among those he attended was a boy named Freddie
(sic) Hook, aged ten, and the doctor set his broken leg.
Another occupant of the collapsible boat was saloon passenger Joseph Levinson, who also commented on Frank Hook, as was reported at the time in
The Cork Examiner: -
He was particularly interested in the fate of a child, Frank Hook, of Millicrest Street, Toronto, a little fellow who has his leg broken.
Mr Levinson is now afraid that little Frank has been bereft of his parents and should that be so he considers it his duty to stand by the boy and help him through life.
When the Brock arrived at Queenstown, Frank Hook was taken straight to the local hospital, where, after three days he was discovered by his father and sister. They too had been rescued from the sea and after their arrival at Queenstown, had scoured the temporary mortuaries there, searching for their missing family member. One can only imagine their joy when they eventually found him in a hospital bed!
Upon his recovery and discharge from hospital after several weeks, he eventually made it to England, as did fellow third class passengers Gerda Neilson and Jack Welsh. Having met for the first time and fallen in love on board the
Lusitania, the relationship no doubt having been cemented by their experiences, on 13th May 1915, they became husband and wife. The Marsh family was not so fortunate, however. Only Annie Marsh survived, both her husband and baby son being killed as a result of the German action.
Aged 13 years, Frank Hook commenced working part-time for a local chemist, and began working full-time when he was 14 years. He began attending night school and he completed a two-year course at the Manchester Institute of Technology when he was aged 21 years. His employer began die-casting in 1921, and this was to shape Frank’s future.
In 1925, Frank moved to Australia, initially working on a wheat farm in Victoria, before taking up a position as a toolmaker with H.B. Chalmers in Williamstown in 1927. He returned to night school, studying tool making and metallurgy. He started up a small tool room in a garage in Williamstown where he made machine die tools for plastic moulding using a water-powered hand press of his own construction and design. At some stage in the late 1920’s, he married his wife, Ethel May.
In 1939, he left H.B. Chalmers and set up on his own as Frank Hook Products. Business flourished, and in 1940, he found it necessary to move from his garage and re-locate to Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. By 1942, he had re-located again, this time to Spencer Street, Melbourne, and in 1954 he moved to a purpose-built facility at Hyde Street, Footscray.
In 1948, his father, George Hook, and his sister Elsie, who was married to a man named William Hadland, joined him in Australia, his father coming to live with him and his family in Williamstown.
Still growing, the company made the final move to Altona North in 1966, and in 1988, the company ceased die-casting and began specialising in plastic injection moulding. The company, now trading as Hook Plastics, was at the fore-front of its industry.
Frank Hook died in Williamstown, Victoria, on the 16th August 1998, aged 94 years, and was buried in Williamstown Cemetery. The company he founded in 1939, was bought by Socobell Automotive in 2012, and today, sadly, the company name no longer exists.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Essex England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1918, 1911 Census of Canada, 1939 Register, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Cunard Records, Cheshire Observer, Seven Days to Disaster, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903 – 1980, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, Graham Maddocks, Marnie Hook, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.