He was the son of Annie Banks and he lived at the bottom end of Northop Hall.

Geoffrey was a DEMS gunner (Defensivey Equipped Merchant Ship) – a Royal Navy man protecting a Merchant Navy ship. The ship was the ‘Putney Hill’ and was en route from Cape Town to New York to pick up a cargo of military equipment from Russia. She was hit by a torpedo from a German U Boat (U -203) about 500 miles off San Juan, Peurto Rico. The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship. The lifeboat that Geoffrey Banks was in, itself capsized and after a struggle to hang onto an oar, Geoffrey slipped under the water and drowned.

There is a very detailed account of the sinking of the ‘Putney Hill’ written by crew member Alan Shard and it is to be found on  http://homepage.ntlworld.com/annemariepurnell/putneyhill.html