William (Wolf) Wess was born to a Jewish family in Vilkomar, Lithuania in 1861. Early in his career, he worked as a machinist in Dvinsk and emigrated to England at the age of twenty. Wess was much influenced by Morris Winchevsky, a Socialist and poet. In 1885 the International Workingmen's Educational Club was founded in Berner Street in the East End of London. Wess was the Club's secretary and he was the first witness called at the inquest of Elizabeth Stride, an alleged victim of Jack the Ripper, in October 1888 : Elizabeth Stride's body was found in the early hours of the morning in the yard next to buildings used by the International Working Men's Education Society. Wess was heavily involved in the labour movement and assisted in the foundation of many Jewish trade unions. He acted as secretary of the strike committee during the strike of East London tailors in 1889. During the 1890s Wess founded and was secretary of the Federation of East London Workers' Unions: he was also secretary successively of the International Tailors, Machinists and Pressers' Trade Union, and the United Ladies and Mantle Makers' Association. Wess withdrew from his activities in the Jewish trade union movement at the beginning of the twentieth century and took up a job as a book-keeper in a tobacco factory. William Wess died in 1946.
Reference: John Quail, The Slow Burning Fuse (London, 1978).
From the guide to the Papers of William Wess, 1854-1946, (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library)
