Zoe Dyke (6 February 1896 – 12 February 1975) was a British pioneer of British

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, ''Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively studie ...

. The silk created in her businesses has been used by British Royalty including the wedding dresses of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

and

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

Life

Millicent Zoe Bond was born in

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

but by the age of four she was living in

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

in Dorset where she developed an interest in silk worms. Her parents were Eliza Josephine and Dr. Barnabas Mayston Bond. She attended

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...

and in 1912 she went to a college in Paris. In 1922 she married Oliver who was the son of Sir William Hart Dyke. His father owned

Lullingstone Castle Lullingstone Castle is a historic manor house, set in an estate in the village of Lullingstone and the civil parish of Eynsford in the English county of Kent. It has been inhabited by members of the Hart Dyke family for twenty generations inclu ...

in Kent, and was active in politics and sport. Oliver Dyke had become an engineer and in 1931 he inherited the family home and became the 8th Hart Dyke Baronet. Zoe used the attic to again breed silk worms and Victor built a machine to process the thread. By 1936 Zoe's silk worms were making her a leading expert and Queen Mary visited to see her work. She was given a medal by the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

.John Martin, ‘Dyke , (Millicent) Zoë, Lady Dyke (1896–1975)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 12 July 2017
/ref> Zoe and Oliver's marriage ended in 1944. Oliver remarried but Zoe did not. The production of silk had more or less ceased during the war but in 1946 it began again with a limited company. Oliver was briefly involved but it was Zoe's company as it became again a centre for silk enthusiasts. In the 1950s Oliver and his second wife returned to the Lullingstone estate where the emphasis was creating a new tourist business unrelated to silk. Zoe moved away with the business to

Ayot House Ayot may refer to several things in Hertfordshire, England: * Ayot St Lawrence, a village and parish, residence of George Bernard Shaw * Ayot St Peter, a village and parish * Ayot Green Ayot Green is a hamlet in Hertfordshire, England and is nea ...

Ayot St Lawrence Ayot St Lawrence is a small English village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, west of Welwyn. There are several other ''Ayots'' in the area, including Ayot Green and Ayot St Peter, where the census population of Ayot St Lawrence was included in ...

, Hertfordshire. Zoe's company created silk for the coronation robe of

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

; other important royal commissions included the

wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth The wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) was worn at her wedding to Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh on 20 November 1947 in Westminster Abbey. Given the rationing of clothing at the time, she still had to pur ...

, the coronation robes of

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

, and the

wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer Lady Diana Spencer's wedding dress was an ivory silk taffeta and antique lace gown, with a train and a tulle veil, valued then at £9,000 (). It was worn at Diana's wedding to Charles, Prince of Wales in 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral. It became ...

. Dyke died in a nursing home in

Herne Bay Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...

in 1975.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyke, Zoe 1896 births 1975 deaths People from Leyton British non-fiction writers Silk production British women writers People from Lullingstone Wives of baronets