William John Bankes - Education, Adventures and Friends

Education, Adventures and Friends

William Bankes became interested with exploration and discovery and had an evident passion for ancient Egypt and fine art. His massive portfolio of notes, manuscripts and drawings produced and collected during his travels along the Nile with explorations in Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East with Giovanni Finati, whose memoirs he translated, have significant historical value and provide the only historical record of some inscriptions and monuments. He published his Travels in the East

Bankes was an educated and affluent man, though at times somewhat mischievous and boisterous. He was born in 1786 to Frances Woodley (b. 1760 d. 1823) and Henry Bankes, MP, of Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle in Dorset. Frances was the eldest daughter of William Woodley (MP for Great Bedwin and Marlborough), Governor and Captain-General of the Leeward Islands (1766–1771 and 1791–1793), and his wife Frances Payne of St Kitts. William's aunt was Maria Banks (Woodley) Riddell, a well-known poet, who was known to be the chief benefactor of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. William's sister, Anne Francis Bankes married Edward Boscawen, 1st Earl of Falmouth in 1810. In 1841, on the death of her husband, Lady Falmouth returned to reside at Kingston Lacey. It was Lady Falmouth, in the absence of her brother, who was responsible for the ongoing re-decoration of Kingston Lacy which had been commenced by her mother Francis (Woodley) Bankes.

He was the second of five children and the eldest surviving son. Bankes was educated at Westminster School and continued his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge where he received his BA in 1808 and his MA in 1811. Lord Byron, a fellow student at Trinity College, became Bankes’ lifelong friend. Bankes sometimes accompanied Byron in his European tours.

Bankes inherited Stoughton Hall, Flintshirefrom his great uncle, and in 1835 inherited his family’s home, Kingston Lacy. The mansion was home to Bankes for many years and still houses his vast collections of art and artefacts.

Sir Charles Barry, a renowned architect in his day, was also a long-term friend of Bankes. The two men met in 1819 at the temple of Rameses in Abu Simbel, where Bankes made drawings and arranged for the transport of the bilingual obelisk from Philae that may be seen in the gardens of Kingston Lacy today. Bankes had great respect for Barry’s talents and Barry accomplished much of the building work on the Bankes’ family properties over the years. Barry is well known for his architectural talents which were applied to the Houses of Parliament, St. Peter’s Church in Brighton, the Victoria Tower and the Westminster Bridge. His work was inspired by Italian Renaissance type architecture and indeed contributed to the improved design of Bankes home, Kingston Lacy.

While traveling in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War, Bankes served as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington. The Duke later came to Bankes’ rescue when he was on trial for his imprudent lifestyle. The Duke of Wellington also celebrated Bankes’ successes; in fact, he performed the ceremony at Kingston Lacy when the foundation was laid for one of Bankes’ most notable discoveries, the Philae obelisk. The obelisk is now viewable in the National Trust grounds of Kingston Lacy.

Bankes was an adventurous man with many talents. He was an amateur architect, a careful epigrapher and he mastered the art of copying ancient inscriptions. He was very interested in Egypt and, though he was an opponent of Champollion, in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Bankes dabbled in architecture and with the assistance of his friend Charles Barry, transformed Kingston Lacy encasing the brick structure with stone. He collected numerous Spanish paintings, by Murillo and others, as well as artifacts from Ancient Egypt which are still housed at the house.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in Mar, 1822.