An obituary about George Drummond Birks, published in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, is a good read about the jewellery firm, Henry Birks and Company that was founded in 1879, and the family that ran it for more than 100 years.
Mr. Birks, who was 98 years old when he died on June 23, 2017, was the fourth generation to run the Birks stores.
The family’s Canadian story began when John Birks immigrated to Montreal from Yorkshire, England in 1832. That year, Montreal’s population of 30,000 was hit with a cholera epidemic and two of John Birks’ children died. His son, Henry, survived and eventually went on to found Canada’s largest jewellery store.
Interior Henry Birks & Co’s jewellery store, Montreal, Quebec, about 1890. Photographer: Wm. Notman & Son. Source: McCord Museum, VIEW-2518.
At its peak, the Birks flagship store on Montreal’s Phillips Square was the largest jewellery retail space on one floor in North America. It remains open today with the same name, although it is now owned by an Italian company.
In the early 1990s, Henry Birks and Sons went into bankruptcy protection. At its height, the firm ran about 220 stores in Canada and the United States. Birks was sold in 1993 to the Italian-based Borgosesia, now known as Iniziativa Regaluxe SrL.
My grandfather fought with Henry Gifford Birks with the Black Watch during WWI and they stayed good friends all their lives. If Grampa was downtown he would stop in to see Henry who would drop everything to spend time with his old friend. I can see one reason why they went bankrupt – although the Birks family were kind down-to-earth people, some of their staff were very snooty and off-putting!