Hankey, Frederick, 1774-1855

Sir Frederick Hankey GCMG (13 March 1774 – 13 March 1855) was a British army officer, diplomat and colonial administrator. Hankey, born in London, married his first cousin, Charlotte Hankey, at Fetcham, Surrey, in July 1796. They had two daughters, Emma (1798-1864) and Frederica (1816-1872). Charlotte Hankey died that same year 1816. Hankey remarried in December 1818 with a woman from Corfu, Mrs Catterina (or Catherine) Valarmo, Vaslamo or Varlamo, with who he had Thomasina-Ionia (1819-1900). Frederick Hankey served in the British Army in Ceylon (1800-1811) as an infantry officer (he attained the rank of colonel in the 15th Regiment of Foot). He then became private secretary of Sir Thomas Maitland. Hankey served in Malta from 1824 to 1837. He achieved great respect for a sensitive diplomatic mission to the Vatican about the legal immunity that the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed on the Island of Malta. In particular Naples' claim that he had the right to nominate any Bishops of Malta. The Vatican would eventually come down on the side of the British, thanks in large part to Hankey's diplomatic intervention with Rome. In 1833 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George by William IV. Sir Frederick Hankey died in London in 1855 on his 81st birthday.

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