#1752, Frederick WANKLYN

(Baptised 21 9 1838 Deansgate, Manchester)

Frederick arrived in Argentina, probably in the early 1850s to work in the family firm of Bradshaw, Wanklyn and Jordan. The business premises were in San Martin Street (where Peuser were later); it started out as a broker in the Rio Plata market possibly also acting as a finance company. After a series of amalgamations, and with the help of Edward Lumb (#14503), Thomas Armstrong and the Ambrosio Placido Lezica y Lanus Society it became a bank with shareholders; it was called the Banco Comercial and then the Mercantile Bank of the River Plate but it was known as the Wanklyn Bank. From 1870 Frederick and his family lived in the expansive Ambrosio Placida Lezica villa in Caballito, opposite what today is the Rivadavia Park. They lived in this elegant residence surrounded by trees but did not enjoy it for long as Frederick died of Appendicitis in 1875 and was interred in the Protestant Cemetery in Victoria Street. Elizabeth and the children went back to England and the Mercantile Bank of the River Plate closed after Lezica Lanus and the Banco Argentino went bankrupt during a financial crisis. From the remnants emerged the English Bank of the River Plate. The Wanklyn villa, now somewhat reduced in size was rented to General Roca in 1880 when he became the nation's President. There he would have received such distinguished guests as the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York. Later, in a small part of the villa overlooking Rivadavia, there opened the Sacred Heart School, which remained there for half a century until it was expropriated for the local authority.