John Eldon Bankes

Sir John Eldon Bankes, (17 April 1854 – 31 December 1946) was a Welsh judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, and later a Lord Justice of Appeal.

Biography Born in Northop, Flintshire on 17 April 1854, In 1910 he became a judge of the High Court, and in 1915 a Lord Justice of Appeal and a Privy Councillor. He retired from the bench in 1927.

On the death of his father, he inherited the family home of Soughton Hall, Flintshire. He married Edith Ethelston in 1882 (d. 1931), and the couple had two sons and two daughters. In 1921, Bankes was made an honorary LL.D. of the University of Wales.

Notable judicial decisions

Bankes handed down a number of notable decisions during his judicial career, predominantly in the field of banking law. Key decisions included: Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England 1 KB 461, the leading authority on a banker's duty of confidentiality Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank v Comptoir d'Estcompte de Mulhouse AC 112, on the authority of the bank's officers National Provincial Bank v Charnley 1 KB 431, priority between competing security interests Banque Belge pour L'Etranger v Hambrouck 1 KB 321, on knowing receipt and tracing Joachimson v Swiss Bank Corporation 3 KB 110, on the banker-customer relationship

He chaired the Royal Commission on the Private Manufacture of and Trading in Arms in 1935–1936.