Viola Bankes
Toronto Daily Star, April 11 1927
Strictly speaking, it would probably have been more accurate to refer to the former Viola Bankes as a Dorset beauty, as her family were landed gentry from that area. The family estate was known as Kingston Lacy, and Ms. Bankes (who used her maiden name when writing) wrote a collection of reminiscences about growing up there.
A comment on the page for the collection of reminiscences claims that when Ms. Bankes' father became terminally ill, she was told that he was going to Africa; she and her siblings were not told about his death. The comment also claims that her mother never spoke to her again when she married a "middle-class doctor" (who, presumably, was Mr. Hall).
A search turned up this portrait of the couple on their wedding day and revealed that she passed away in 1989.
Created August 27, 2025.