Sir John Eldon Bankes Country Life Magazine Portrait December 17 1927

Sir John Eldon Bankes Country Life Magazine Portrait, Frontispiece, December 17 1927. LXII No. 1613

The featured frontispiece this week is a portrait of The Right Hon. Sir John Eldon Bankes, P.C. (1854–1946), a distinguished Welsh judge who served as a Lord Justice of Appeal and a member of the Privy Council.

• Career: He was appointed a judge of the High Court in 1910 and became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1915, serving until his retirement in 1927.
• Heritage: He was the son of John Scott Bankes of Soughton Hall and a great-grandson of John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, former Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
• Legacy: He played an important role in drafting the constitution for the Church in Wales following its disestablishment in 1920.
• Marriage: In 1882, he married Edith Ethelston (1856–1931), daughter of Robert Peel Ethelston of Whitchurch.
• Children: The couple had four children, including:
  • Robert Wynne Bankes (1887–1975), a barrister who served as Private Secretary to several Lord Chancellors
  • Margaret Annie Bankes, who married Sir Wilfrid Hubert Poyer Lewis, a High Court judge
• Family Legacy: His son Robert inherited the family seat at Soughton Hall, while a memorial institute in Northop, Flintshire, was established in memory of his wife Edith after her death.

This is an authentic original page from Country Life magazine, part of the iconic series often affectionately referred to as the “Girls in Pearls” portraits — elegant society images that captured a distinctive era of British publishing and portraiture.

Size: Approximately 13.75 x 9 inches (35 x 23 cm)

Condition: Very good for its age. As with all vintage magazine pages, light signs of handling or minor age-related blemishes may be present. Please review the large photo carefully for full condition details.

This original Country Life Magazine frontispiece portrait forms part of The Old Map Shop’s curated archive of society portraits published between 1897 and 2026.