Philip Aks

Master Philip Aks,¹ also known as Frank or Filly, was born in London, England on 7 June 1911.

He was the son of Polish immigrants, Sam Aks (1891-1970), a tailor, and Leah Rosen (1891-1967), natives of Łódź and Warsaw, respectively who had married the year before his birth before resettling in England.

In the months prior to Aks' birth his parents appeared on the 1911 census as residents of 198 St George Street, St George in the East, London and his father was described as a trouser machinist.

His father Sam left England in January 1912, sailing from Liverpool to New York aboard Cymric. He worked as a tailor, eventually saving enough money to send back for his wife and son to join him in Norfolk, Virginia. Leah and her son boarded Titanic as third class passengers (ticket number 392091 which cost £9, 7s) at Southampton on 10 April 1912.

Leah and her infant son became separated during the confusion and ended up in different lifeboats.  Frank As is now believed to have been rescued in lifeboat 11 under the care of stewardess Mary Keziah Roberts.

Mother and son were later reunited on the Carpathia.

In America, Frank gained two siblings: Sarah Carpathia (b. 1913) and Harry (b. 1915). His father later worked as an auto salesman and later managed his own garage.

Philip Aks

When the gigantic steamship Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the mid Atlantic, about six years ago, among the passengers was a Norfolk woman, with her infant son. When the work of rescue began, mother and child were separated, and the baby was dropped over the side of the liner into the lap of a woman who had just been lowered into a lifeboat. Frantic over the loss of her little son, the mother was placed in another small craft, and was transferred to the Carpathia, convinced that the infant that had been sleeping beside her a few hours before would never be seen again. 

But the unexpected happened, and the woman's joy, knew no bounds when the baby was restored to her just after the Carpathia reached New York. The woman was Mrs Samuel Aks, and the infant was Philip, who had been born in London, Eng., and was not then a year old.

Now Philip is a well grown youngster and a student in the Henry Clay school. He is a young patriot. While he has been one of the most active pupils in selling war savings stamps, and has made a record in that connection, he yesterday purchased $50 worth of them for himself, just to show how good an investment he thinks they are and to help Uncle Sam to win the war. Philip lives with his parents at 537 Church Street. — Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, 9 May 1918

The 1920 census shows Frank and his family living at 552 Church Street, Norfolk, whilst that held in 1930 shows the family living at 1021 Weston Avenue, also in Norfolk. Frank never completed high school and at that time he was working as an auto mechanic, later to be a salesman like his father and owning the Eastern Salvage Company before his retirement in 1974.

He met his future wife aged 18; she was Marie Miller (b. 24 January 1914), a native of Portsmouth, Virginia. The couple enjoyed a long and happy marriage which they put down to the fact that they were married twice, by a justice of the peace in South Mills, North Carolina, and by a rabbi in Alexandria, Virginia. The marriage produced two daughters, Barbara Jean (b. 1930, later Morris) and Joyce Fern (1933-1996, later Rosenfeld).

Active in his local community, Aks was a member of Beth El Temple, Khedive Shrine Temple and Jewish Community Centre. A Freemason, he was a member of Masonic Lodge I and spent his last years living at 900 Block of Armfield Circle, Norfolk.

The last two decades of Aks' life revolved around Titanic, and he owned a large personal collection of Titanic memorabilia; his collection was on display in the Mariner's Museum in Newport News until 1996. A member of the Titanic Historical Society, he attended several conventions in the 1980s and during the 1950s; with the renewal of interest in the ship, he was a special guest alongside his mother at showings of Fox's Titanic and A Night to Remember.

Frank Aks died of heart failure on 15 July 1991, aged 80, and was later buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Norfolk. He was survived by his wife Marie, who died on 27 January 2003.