Bankes, William John (1786–1855), traveller and antiquary

Admitted to Trinity as Fellow-Commoner, 25 June 1803. Matriculated Lent, 1806; B.A. 1808; M.A. 1811. M.P. for Cambridge University, 1822-1826; as well as for Truro, Marlborough and Dorset at other points in his parliamentary career. Succeeded to the family estates as 6th of Kingston Lacy, Dorset, 1834, and also to Soughton Hall, Flintshire, on the death of his great-uncle Sir William Wynne in 1815. Travelled widely in the East. Friend of Lord Byron. Died unmarried Apr. 15, 1855, at Venice. Letters to his mother Margaret Bankes, née Wynne, about his life at Trinity can be found in the papers of the Bankes family of Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle at Dorset History Centre, reference D-BKL/H/G.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography