Francis William Bourdillon (22 March 1852 at

Runcorn, Cheshire Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the ...

, England – 13 January 1921 at Buddington,

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...

) was a British poet and translator. He is known also as a bibliophile.

Life

Born at Trinity Parsonage, Halton Road,

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, Francis William Bourdillon was the eldest son of Rev. Francis Bourdillon, the author, at that time

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

of Runcorn. He was educated at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

, graduating B.A. 1877, M.A. 1882. From 1876 to 1879, he acted as tutor to the sons of

Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (Frederick Christian Charles Augustus; 22 January 1831 – 28 October 1917) was a minor Danish-born German prince who became a member of the British royal family through his marriage to Princess Helena ...

. Later Bourdillon lived in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

, and near

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. His friends included Audrey Boyle (1853/4–1916), later as wife of

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, (11 August 1852 – 2 December 1928) was a British aristocrat who served as the second governor-general of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1904. He was previously Governor of South Australia from 1899 to ...

, known as Audrey Lady Tennyson.

Writer

Young Maids & Old China Sowerby Bourdillon 0000

Bourdillon is known for his poetry, and in particular, for the single short poem "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes". He had many collections published, including ''Among The Flowers, And Other Poems'' (1878), ''Minuscula: lyrics of nature, art and love'' (1897, siftings of three smaller volumes of verse published anonymously at Oxford in 1891, 1892, and 1894), ''Gerard and Isabel: a Romance in Form of Cantefable'' (1921), and also ''

Chryseis In Greek mythology, Chryseis (, grc, Χρυσηΐς, translit=Khrysēís, ) is a Trojan woman, the daughter of Chryses. Chryseis, her apparent name in the ''Iliad'', means simply "Chryses' daughter"; later writers give her real name as Astynome ...

'', and ''Preludes and Romances'' (1908). In 1896, Bourdillon published ''Nephelé'', a romantic novel. He translated ''

Aucassin et Nicolette ''Aucassin et Nicolette'' (12th or 13th century) is an anonymous medieval French fictional story. It is the unique example of a ''chantefable'', literally, a "sung story", a combination of prose and verse (similar to a ''prosimetrum''). History ...

'' as ''Aucassin and Nicolet'' (1887), and he wrote the scholarly ''The Early Editions of the Roman de la Rose'' (1906) as well as ''Russia Reborn'' (1917) and various essays which the

Religious Tract Society The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commerci ...

published.

Family

Bourdillon married Agnes Smyth, and they lived at Buddington, near

. They had three children, including the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

pilot and later medical researcher

Robert Benedict Bourdillon Robert Benedict Bourdillon CBE MC AFC DM (8 September 1889 – 3 March 1971) was a British World War I pilot and medical researcher. Early life Born in Easebourne, Midhurst, Sussex, southern England, Robert Benedict Bourdillon was the younge ...

(1889–1971). The mountaineer

Tom Bourdillon Thomas Duncan Bourdillon ( ; 16 March 1924 – 29 July 1956) was an English mountaineer and member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition which made the first ascent of Mount Everest. He died in the Valais, Switzerland, on 29 July 1956 age ...

(1924–1956) was a grandson.

References

External links

* * *
Poems by Francis Bourdillon
* Francis William Bourdillon Collection. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourdillon, Francis William 1852 births 1921 deaths People from Runcorn Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford English male poets 19th-century English poets 20th-century English poets 19th-century English male writers 20th-century English male writers