his cousin was also angler ,worked at the family firm & a jp and a cricket player ,fwk is beleaved too have been involved in cricket too maybe a umpire ,& he was friends with a certain Mr Coxon (another cricketer & umpire)
the story about his initials is little known but its a little in-joke by his parents .His fore names was chosen too spell out FWK because FWK in Victorian times related to lace making fwk =frame work knitter it came from stocking makers (pre trouser days men wore stockings or tights not women) and it later was attributed to lace weaving (because it used too be made on a frame) as that sprang from the stocking making cottage industry & wallis's great gradfather was a engineer who with his partner ran a workshop building Mr leavers new fangled lace weaving machines which turned the lace industry from a cottage industry weaving on frames into a manufacturing business overnight .
although it was known as "Nottingham lace" and theres the historical Lace market in Nottingham itself ,most of the lace making took place in villages outside Nottingham ,and one of them in close proximity too the river trent and only a few miles from Nottingham was Long Eaton ,which went from a rural village to major lace producing town ,with the invention of leavers lace weaving machine ,and it being made in the town (by Wallis's great grandfather & partner,"Wallis and Longden") ,lace mills sprang up .by the turn of the century the (willam wallis ,fwk's grandad) Wallis family built "britania mills" as the William Wallis and Sons ,enoch (fwk's dad?) was a prominent person in the town ,with other business intrests ,he also opened the library ,the family made lace upto the 1930's .fwk worked at the factory as a draughtsperson amoungst other jobs ,he also became a jp after the family business was sold/took over he invested his moneys and moved south to continue as a jp and fish his beloved river at the royalty .
ok i'm long eaton bourn & bread and first learnt to wally cast there on the banks of the trent ,possibly where fwk may well of stood & fished (although he learnt the cast from bailey & bendigo ,he just refined the cast that later bore his name) ,so I've a little vested intrest in F.W.K ,done a little research here & there ,don't yet have the full picture of the man ,one day I may