We present H _ { \alpha } spectra of the magnetic white dwarf star WD 1953 - 011 which confirm the presence of the broad Zeeman components corresponding to a field strength \sim 500 kG found by Maxted & Marsh ( 1999 ) .
We also find that the line profile is variable over a timescale of a day or less .
The core of the H _ { \alpha } line also shows a narrow Zeeman triplet corresponding to a field strength of \sim 100 kG which appears to be almost constant in shape .
These observations suggest that the magnetic field on WD 1953 - 011 has a complex structure and that the star has a rotational period of hours or days which causes the observed variability of the spectra .
We argue that neither an offset dipole model nor a double-dipole model are sufficient to explain our observations .
Instead , we propose a two component model consisting of a high field region of magnetic field strength \sim 500 kG covering about 10 % of the surface area of the star superimposed on an underlying dipolar field of mean field strength \sim 70 kG .
Radial velocity measurements of the narrow Zeeman triplet show that the radial velocity is constant to within a few km/s so this star is unlikely to be a close binary .