Zoe Dyke
Dyke [née Bond], (Millicent) Zoë, Lady Dyke (1896–1975), pioneer of British sericulture
Millicent Zoe Hart Dyke (née Bond; 6 February 1896 – 12 February 1975) was a pioneer of British sericulture. The silk created in her businesses has been used by British royalty, including in the wedding dresses of Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Life
Millicent Zoe Bond was born in Leyton but by the age of four she was living in Poole 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 and in 1912 she went to a college in Paris.
In 1922 she married Oliver Hart Dyke, son of Sir William Hart Dyke, 7th Baronet. Sir William owned Lullingstone Castle in Kent and was active in politics and sport. Oliver Hart Dyke became an engineer and in 1931 upon his father's death inherited the family home and the baronetcy. Dyke 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Zoe Dyke” as dyke [née Bond], (Millicent) Zoë, Lady Dyke (1896–1975), pioneer of British sericulture. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as dyke [née Bond], (Millicent) Zoë, Lady Dyke (1896–1975), pioneer of British sericulture. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18531749. VIAF identifies the subject as 515145857037222920978. The Library of Congress control number is nb2016004464. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1896, 1975, 1912 and 1922.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zoe Dyke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.