Vokes family

Their father, Frederick Strafford Thwaites Vokes (1816-1890), was a theatrical costumier and wigmaker[1] who owned a shop at 19 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.

[4] Early in this career, at the Lyceum Theatre, London, they danced in W. S. Gilbert's pantomime, Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren.

They made their Paris debut in August 1870 at the Théâtre du Châtelet where they were an immediate success, but with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War it became unsafe to remain and they left the city with just a few hours notice.

[6] The piece that most successfully carried an audience by storm was The Belles of the Kitchen, in which the Vokes family made its debut in the United States at the Union Square Theatre in New York on 15 April 1872.

They made their last appearance in New York at the Mount Morris Theatre in Harlem in January 1883, returning to England (again without brother Fred) in June 1883.

The Vokes Family in about 1875: (l-r) Fawdon , Rosina , Victoria , Jessie and Fred Vokes
The Vokes Family in Little Red Riding Hood at Her Majesty's Theatre (Christmas 1883)