| Authorised form of name | Bankes; William John (1786 - 1855) |
| Dates | 1786 - 1855 |
| Date of birth | 11 December 1786 |
| Place of death | Venice, Venezia province, Veneto, Italy, Europe |
| Date of death | 15 April 1855 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
Wimborne Minster, Dorset England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Politician; archaeologist; explorer; collector |
| Research field | Archaeology |
| Egyptology |
| Antiquities |
| Activity | Education:
Westminster School (1795); Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1808, MA 1811)
Career:
MP for Truro (1810-1812); MP for Cambridge University (1822- 1826); MP for Marlborough (1829-1832); MP for Dorset (1832-1835); lived a bohemian life in Spain and Portugal (1812); travelled widely in the Middle East and Africa, especially Egypt, Nubia and the Nile collecting antiquities, accompanied by artists who documented ancient monuments and inscriptions (1812-1819); published account of his explorations as 'Travels in the East'; engaged Louis Linant de Bellefonds to search for the ancient city of Meroe (accomplished 1821-1822); contributed to deciphering the Rosetta Stone by suggesting that the texts on the stone might all say the same thing in different languages, and correctly supposed that a recurring cartouche represented a royal name; forced to flee England following his second arrest for having gay sex, which was illegal in the UK at the time and would likely have resulted in his execution (1841); living in France and later Italy continued to collect ancient and modern art and artefacts which he sent home to his house Kingston Lacy in Dorset; died in exile in Venice (1855) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 28/03/1822 |
| Age at election | 35 |
| Date of ejection or withdrawal | 1842 |
| Other Royal Society activity | Ejected following arrest for homosexual activity with a guardsman on a bench in St James's Park, London |
| Relationships | Friend and travelleing companion of Lord Byron. Mother, Frances Woodley (b. 1760 d. 1823) daughter of William Woodley (MP for Great Bedwin and Marlborough), Governor and Captain-General of the Leeward Islands (1766–1771 and 1791–1793); Father, Henry Bankes, MP; maternal Aunt, Maria Banks (Woodley) Riddell, a well-known poet, who was benefactor to the Scottish poet Robert Burns |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Patricia Usick, 'Adventures in Egypt and Nubia: The Travels of William John Bankes' (1786-1855); Wikipedia
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/25/rosetta-stone-to-be-added-to-british-museum-lgbtq-tours
Bankes of Kingston Lacy archive (ref: D/BKL), including the travel papers and correspondence of William John Bankes, c1800-1818, held at the Dorset History Centre
Dorothy U. Seyler. 'The Obelisk and the Englishman: The Pioneering Discoveries of Egyptologist William Bankes' (New York), 2015.
Notes:
Ejected from the Royal Society 1842 following his arrest (Council Minutes, 10 March 1842). |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/67333654 |
| Code | NA4968 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1822/01 | Bankes, William John: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |