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Third son and fifth child of Jameson Alers Hankey of Bexley, Gerald was born on 13 Nov 1869 at Widmore, Bromley. In 1881 he and his brother Harold were at a preparatory school in Leamington Priors. He later attended Stubbington House preparatory school at Fareham, which specialised in training boys for the Navy.
In 1887 the 18 year-old Gerald Alers Hankey arrived in the Argentine Republic, where he was involved in ranching and shipping. He sailed from Buenos Aires in 1891, arriving at Southampton on 8 May 1891. He shortly afterwards came to Vancouver, British Columbia, being associated with Wulffsohn & Bewicke, Ltd, a private banking house based in London.
The first bank in Vernon, BC, was opened by Gerald Alers Hankey, acting as agent of Wulffsohn & Bewicke, Ltd on 1st November 1892. These bankers controlled the Okanogan Land and Development Co. of Vernon, owning most of the building lots in the townsite. Hankey was to be their local manager, with the bank being a ‘profitable sideline’ dealing mainly in mortgages, and the discounting of ‘cash orders’.
The ‘profitable sideline’ was to be in for a severe shock, however, because on the same train that brought Hankey to Vernon on 29 Oct 1892, there arrived Campbell Sweeney, representative for the Bank of Montreal. It took the Montreal two months to get under way, and when they opened on 1 December 1892, most of Hankey’s business went across the street
Gerald then went into the real estate business for himself under the name of G.A.Hankey & Co. Ltd. As well as being a financial, real estate, insurance and general agent and mining broker and agent in Vernon, he was a Notary Public, and a director of Okanogan Telephone Co., Ltd.; of Imperial Underwriters Corporation; and of White Valley Irrigation & Power Co. Ltd. He was a member of the Board of Vernon Jubilee Hospital; Mayor of Vernon in 1902 for one term and Alderman for one term. It was also reported that he was to open a steam laundry in 1911, and that it would be the best equipped laundry in the West.
In 1913 Gerald sold out to A. Waring Giles, but retained wide business interests locally and at the Coast. These he managed until his death.
Gerald was married in 1898 to Mary Manley Spinks, who had been born at Liverpool in 1878 and who came to British Columbia at the age of eight in about 1886; she died on 29 Jun 1979 aged 101. They had four sons and one daughter surviving, and two grandsons and two grand-daughters.
He was described in 1917 as a ‘retired financial agent’, and in 1922 had an address at Morden Lodge, Bexley Heath but his home undoubtedly remained in Vernon.
He died on 23 Aug 1943 at the Jubilee Hospital in Vernon.
Sources: Paul Siggers; Vernon newspapers (unspecified)