Readers’ Letters

Which Monty Banks?

I refer to the Classic Camera piece in TCM for October, concerning Valerie Peto.

According to the caption, she was a Streatham resident, so possibly a member of the Streatham & District MCC. At one time this was one of the larger clubs in the ACU’s South-Eastern Centre, organising social and all types of sporting events, including the interests in which Mrs Peto took part.

Sadly, the Streatham Club folded some years ago and no one seems to know if archive material survives, or who might still hold it.

There is also a reference to a ‘Monty Banks Gold Star’. This is where social history gets rather foggy. The original(?) Montague ‘Monty’ Banks was married to Gracie Fields, both were hugely successful comics and actors. The couple were megastars of their day in pre-TV times. Inevitably, in the way of popular culture, any male with the