Janet Stancomb-Wills


Dame Janet Stancomb Graham Stancomb-Wills, DBE was the eldest daughter of George Perkins and Catherine Janet Stancomb, at Aldersgate, London, and niece of the first Baron Winterstoke. With the early deaths of her father, and older brother, she and her sister, Yda Emily Margaretha Stancomb, were adopted by Sir William Henry Wills, and Janet and Yda officially changed their names to Stancomb-Wills in 1893.
Dame Janet was the first woman mayor of Ramsgate, Kent, an office which she held from 1923–24, and she was also the first person to receive, in 1922, the Freedom of the Town. She was president of the Royal West of England Academy and president of the School of Architecture at Bristol in 1921. In 1927, she was appointed Justice of the Peace for Kent. She died on 22 August 1932 at East Court , Ramsgate, Kent, aged 78.

Name change

The sisters, following their joint adoption by Sir William Henry Wills, changed their names by deed poll to, respectively, Janet Stancomb Graham Stancomb-Wills and Yda Emily Margaretha Stancomb-Wills

Philanthropy/accomplishments

Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills was portrayed by Elizabeth Spriggs in the TV series 'Shackleton'.