Sir Eldon Bankes | |
|---|---|
 Caricature of Sir Eldon Bankes, published inVanity Fair, 29 March 1906 | |
| Lord Justice of Appeal | |
| In office 1915–1927 | |
| Judge of King's Bench Division, High Court | |
| In office 1910–1915 | |
Sir John Eldon Bankes,GCB, PC (17 April 1854 – 31 December 1946) was aWelsh judge of theKing's Bench Division of theHigh Court of Justice, and later aLord Justice of Appeal.[1]
Born inNorthop,Flintshire on 17 April 1854,[2] he was the eldest son of John Scott Bankes (1826-1896) and his first wife, Annie (1829-1876), daughter ofSir John Jervis, himself a chief justice.[2] He was educated atEton College andChrist Church, Oxford, where herowed forOxford University Boat Club.[2]
Called to the Bar at theInner Temple in 1878, hetook silk in 1901. Whilst on the bench, he was often referred to as J. Eldon Bankes.[3] In 1910 he became a judge of the High Court, and in 1915 a Lord Justice of Appeal and aPrivy Councillor. He retired from the bench in 1927.[2]
Bankes was chairman of Quarter Sessions in Flintshire for 33 years, and as aConservative an active member ofFlintshire County Council, of which he was chairman in 1933. He unsuccessfully contested theFlint District constituency in 1906. Bankes was on numerous commissions or committees of inquiry, including: Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Education in Rural Wales, 1928; and as a prominentAnglican, withLord Sankey he drafted the new constitution of theChurch in Wales.[2]
On the death of his father, he inherited the family home ofSoughton Hall,Flintshire. He married Edith Ethelston in 1882 (d. 1931), and the couple had two sons and two daughters. In 1921, Bankes was made an honorary LL.D. of theUniversity of Wales.[2] The Northop Village Hall was endowed as the Edith Bankes Memorial Institute in her memory.
Bankes died at his home in North Wales on 31 December 1946, aged 92. After his death,[2] the Soughton estate passed to their second son, Robert Wynne Bankes, who served as Private Secretary to successiveLord Chancellors.[1] After the death of his mother, his son, John Wynne Bankes, sold the hall into private hands, and in 1987 it was converted into a country house hotel.[4][5]
Bankes handed down a number of notable decisions during his judicial career, predominantly in the field of banking law. Key decisions included:
He chaired theRoyal Commission on the Private Manufacture of and Trading in Arms in 1935–1936.[6]