An impromptu meeting with an inquisitive visitor a few years ago led to embarking on a new book about Walter Bankes (1853-1904). The visitor, a certain Mark Cornell, asked more than curious questions about Walter. Even more intriguingly, his wife, on observing a portrait of Walter, remarked: “There’s definitely some resemblance.”
Move on a few years. Mark Cornell, convinced he was ‘a Bankes’, has now, through conclusive DNA testing, proved that to be the case. Walter was his great grandfather. His relationship with a local woman, Elizabeth Marshall, had during the early 1890s resulted in three offspring. The eldest Ralph William (1892-1974) – very Bankes names! – was Mark’s grandfather.
It is now time to set the record straight with a piece about the mysterious Walter who, as is well known, married Henrietta Jenny Fraser quickly and died young, leaving a son, Ralph who finally left Kingston Lacy to the National Trust in 1981. And was, of course the father of John, the man who didn’t succeed.
The book will trace Walter’s life before 1897, when he married, in an attempt to discover more about his personality, character and lifestyle. There will be some intriguing discoveries!