John Danks & Son

He served an apprenticeship with his father, also named John Danks, a manufacturer of wrought iron tubing, then joined his brothers Samuel and Thomas, who were setting up a similar factory.

[citation needed] The business was hard hit by the Depression of the 1890s, but they opened a factory in Sydney, and won a major contract associated with expansion of the Melbourne sewerage network; by 1900 the payroll had reached 200.

In the Depression years of the 1930s, the company's manufacturing business shrank, and its fortunes depended on retail trade from its stores at 391 Bourke Street, Melbourne, and elsewhere.

He was married to Ann, née Turner (ca.1828 – 2 February 1910); they lived at "Vermont", Merton Crescent, South Melbourne, where he died in 1902 after a short illness.

They had a daughter Annie, and two sons: John predeceased him by six years; the other, Frederick Miles Danks, succeeded Sir Aaron as managing director.

Frederick Miles "Fred" Danks, sole remaining son of Sir Aaron, was an expert gardener and plant breeder, noted for his "Gartref" strain of Iceland poppy.

[8] David Miles Danks (4 June 1931 – 8 July 2003),[9] born with an undiagnosed hole in the heart condition, he was a noted researcher into human genetics.