Mary (le Poer Trench) Banks – Died 17th February 2026 Aged 100

Mary’s parents lived in Kenya and already had two children when Mary was expected. Mary’s mother decided to travel to the UK, heavily pregnant and with the two small children, so that the proud grandparents could meet the family.  In 1925 travel to the UK was usually by boat and took weeks so Mary’s mother embarked on a long and arduous voyage on her own, pregnant and with two small children.  Mary’s father stayed behind to keep running the farm.  All arrived safely at Homesfield in Derbyshire and Mary was born in Sheffield.

A childhood growing up in Africa followed and then the outbreak of war saw Mary enlisting in the WRENS, based in Mombasa. She was later transferred to the UK and thoroughly enjoyed her time here, even if the weather was not quite what she was used to.

At the end of the war she returned to Kenya, to Mombasa, where she met an Englishman, Stanley Banks, who was in Kenya on holiday.  She fell in love with the good-looking and interesting man, married him in 1949 and returned with him to the UK.  In 1951 she had the first of her children, Sally, and in 1956 the second, Geoffrey.  Then in December 1961 her wonderful husband died suddenly.  Mary was left with two small children and the business that her husband had run – a building firm.  In his Will Stanley left the business to his wife, Mary, and she felt duty bound to take it on.  She ran the business, an unusual activity for a woman in the 1960s, and brought up two children.  Living in an area that she had come to when she married she managed without family and without an established social circle.  She took it all in her stride.

Mary was adventurous, tough and independent.  She picked up what life gave her and ran with it.    When the children left home she lived independently and then derived much pleasure from time spent with her grandchildren.  As the grandchildren grew up she developed a fondness for going on cruises to distant destinations.  She also returned to Kenya for a brief stay with her brother and had a wonderful holiday in the US with a cousin.  She delighted in travel.  On one of the cruises she met a gentleman who enjoyed her company and for some years they would meet up for jaunts around London.  Lovely to think of her spending time with a like-minded companion.

I was always extremely proud of my mother and I grieved for her as, in the last couple of months of her life, following her 100th birthday, she became bed-bound.  She has now gone to join Stanley.  May they be happy together.

This picture of Mary was taken in 1946 whilst she was awaiting transport back to Kenya after the war ended.  She and some friends, billeted in Gillingham (Kent), decided to go exploring on their afternoon off.  They hitched a lift from someone with a van who asked them where they were going.  Nowhere in particular was their reply, where are you going?  The van driver told them he was heading for Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey.  That will do us was the response and that’s where they ended up and where the photo was taken.

Sally Banks