b'116530 NotesFRANK (FRANCIS) GEORGE HANKEYFRANK HANKEY artist, forger and fraudster, was the son of (c.1832-1911), William Hankey (1807-1872), a scion of the Hankey mercantile Rare early Panorama of the Port Riverand banking dynasty of London, and former Captain in the & North Parade, Port Adelaide, 1855, Queens 9th Lancers, and his first wife Sarah Bell (c.1808-1851). Frank arrived in Adelaide aboard the Madras on 11 watercolour, wash, ink, pencil and gouache, in eight sections,January 1855, with Samuel Francis White, a principal of laid down on tissue, signed and dated July 1855 on four of thetheir families joint London mercantile firm, Dauglish, White panels, to which the artist has added from memory in two& Hankey of St Helens, Bishopsgate, which had interests places; overall 188cm long, height varies up to 27cm. in Australian mining and communications and had large The scene depicted in the panorama was largely destroyedcommercial interests in the colony of South Australia, including in the Great Port Adelaide Fire of November 1857. The blazein the development of steam navigation on the River Murray.covered several acres and destroyed three hotels, twelveHankey must have made the original sketches for the shops, one bank, sixteen cottages, two stables and severalpanorama within two weeks of his arrival. South Australian outbuildings. This constituted approximately half of Portpastoralist, Arthur Hardy, who recorded White visiting him at Adelaide and nearly its entire commercial district. Total financialhis Mount Lofty retreat, travelled aboard the Bosphorus on losses were estimated between 100,000 and 250,000, and23 January 1855 with him and Hankey to Melbourne, from many of the destroyed properties were uninsured. where White and Hankey made a return trip to Sydney before $10,00020,000 leaving for London that March.'