[1] Hankey was born on 15 September 1916 to a Welsh family, and was brought up in Stilton, Huntingdonshire, England.
She studied classics at Girton College, Cambridge and graduated with a first class honours degree.
In 1938, she joined the British School at Athens and was involved in a number of excavations, including those at Knossos and Mycenae.
[1] Vronwy continued her interest in archaeology alongside her duties as a diplomat's wife, and was the archaeologist "who identified Cyprus as the crucial link between East Mediterranean shipping in the Late Bronze Age.
"[2] A scholarship, the Vronwy Hankey Memorial Fund for Aegean Studies, is available from the British School at Athens.