Frederick Locker-Lampson

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Frederick Locker-Lampson (born May 29, 1821 in Greenwich , Kent , Royal Naval Hospital, † May 30, 1895 in Rowfant , Sussex ) was an English poet and writer of the Victorian era.

Frederick Locker drawn by John Everett Millais

He has been appointed both King's Counsel ( KC ) and Privy Counsel ( PC ).

youth

Frederick Locker was the son of Edward Hawke Locker (1777-1849) and Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Boucher (1793-1861). He was baptized on October 8, 1821 at Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, London, England. He was the third child and had a younger brother, Arthur Locker (July 2, 1828– June 23, 1893), who also became a writer. His mother was the daughter of Pastor Jonathan Boucher. His paternal grandfather was Captain William Locker, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1793. Before that he was in command of the SS Lowestoffe . During this time, Horatio Nelson was his second lieutenant at the age of 18; Cuthbert, later Lord Collingwood , served on the same ship below him. So they all grew up with their seafaring legacy surrounded by books and nautical / maps and were delighted with stories of Lord Nelson over dinner. E. H. Locker also founded the Royal Naval Gallery of Portraits. Locker sen. had an excellent taste in art and among the paintings was the famous work by William Hogarth David Garrick and his Wife , now in the Royal Collection (The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace).

Frederick was sociable but could not read at the age of 9, so attending Eton College, his father's school, was out of the question. He was taught in various schools: at the Clapham in London, at Yateley in Hampshire, in Greenwich and elsewhere. During his student life he wandered through six schools in seven years, so that the parents had to give up their desire to work as a pastor or lawyer for their son.

job

On September 18, 1837, he began an apprenticeship in a trading house in Mincing Lane in London. His parents didn't have to pay anything for the apprenticeship. It turned out, however, that Frederick was unsuitable for trading in goods, just as he was underperforming for any other profession. Nevertheless, he did this unpleasant occupation for a number of years.

On March 30, 1841, at the request of his father, he received a temporary clerk's post in Somerset House from Lord Minto, First Lord of the Admiralty and son of the Governor General of Bengal.

On November 12, 1842, he was transferred to the private office of Lord Haddington to the Admiralty (Admiralty in Whitehall) as a junior scribe, and he subsequently wrote summaries which he enlivened with wit and poetry. A rhyming petition from a pushy lieutenant is said to have raptured Lord Haddington. Here was the seed for his later profession. While at the Admiralty, Locker-Lampson published prose and rhyme in magazines such as Blackwood’s , Cornhill Magazine , and The Times .

Locker continued his career under Sir James Graham and Sir Charles Wood until he was released from work on May 23, 1849 due to his deteriorating health. He went on a tour of Europe.

Marriage and calling

Frederick Locker-Lampson

In Paris he met Lady Charlotte Christian Bruce, daughter of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin , who brought the Elgin Marbles to England, and Locker fell in love with her. Lady Charlotte traveled back to England and a lively correspondence followed. He returned to England and drove to her house, where he proposed to her. They married on July 2, 1850. His wife gave him access to royal circles. They spent their summers in Frogmore, Windsor, as Lady Charlotte was friends with Queen Victoria . Lady Charlotte was the sister of Lady Augusta Stanley. Locker was able to resign from government service through his marriage.

They were happily married and lived in both Rome and Paris. They had a daughter, Eleanor Bertha Mary Locker (1854-1915), who in February 1878 married Lionel Tennyson (1854-1886), the son of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who worked for the India Company. When he traveled to India in 1885, he developed a fever. After more than three months of serious illness, he died on his way home in April 1886. In 1888, Eleanor married Augustine Birrell , a widow , who also wrote about her father. From this marriage Francis Birrell (1889-1935) emerged.

At the age of 36, Locker-Lampson published London Lyrics , a 90-page book of poetry, in 1857 . A second edition appeared in 1862, and in 1865 Edward Moxon included a selection in “Miniature Poets” illustrated by Richard Doyle. Another edition was privately printed for John Wilson of Great Russell Street in 1868, with a frontispiece by George Cruikshank . Eight other editions appeared between 1870 and 1893.

In the United States, London Lyrics was published in 1883 for the Book Fellows' Club of New York, with some new illustrations by Randolph Caldecott . In 1895 the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, Ohio, named after Locker's house in Sussex, published a rare volume of his poems, which Locker had selected himself , under the title Rowfant Rhymes . This volume contains a foreword by Austin Dobson and a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson .

Further reprints appeared through the 20th century, securing Locker's place in English literature.

This was followed with the support of Coulson Kernahan Lyra Elegantiarum (1867), a collection of easy and well-known poems.

Lady Charlotte died on April 26, 1872 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery .

Second marriage

Two years later, on July 6, 1874, Locker married the children's book author Hannah Jane Lampson , the only daughter of Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, Bart. from Rowfant, Sussex. According to his father-in-law's will, after his death on March 12, 1885, he legally changed his name to Locker-Lampson. The name Lampson was retained.

Frederick Locker-Lampson 1892

They had four children:

  • Rt. Hon. Godfrey Lampson Tennyson Locker-Lampson (born June 19, 1875, † May 1, 1946), who became a diplomat and politician. He took over "Rowfant".
  • Dorothy Jane Locker-Lampson (1874-1902).
  • Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson (1880-1954) became a commandant in the Royal Navy, a war hero in World War I and was a member of Parliament.
  • Maud Hannah Locker-Lampson (1880-1933, twin sister of Oliver) married in 1905 the cricketer Conway Victor Fisher-Rowe (1881-1923), who took part in both the Boer War and the First World War and was wounded three times.

In 1879 he published "Patchwork", a collection of humorous anecdotes.

Although Locker was chronically ill and suffered from digestive disorders that made it impossible for him to pursue any active occupation, he was nonetheless a member of several clubs and enjoyed the friendship of many important people. In addition to William Makepeace Thackeray , he was close friends with Anthony Trollope , Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-1892), Lord Houghton , Earl of Lytton , George Eliot , Charles Dickens , Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Alexander William Kinglake , George Cruikshank , Alphonse de Lamartine , Franz Liszt and George du Maurier .

Frederick Locker-Lampson died on May 30, 1895 in Rowfant, Sussex and was buried in the Worth churchyard.

His autobiography My Confidences was published posthumously in 1896.

His widow, Hannah Jane Lampson-Locker, died on May 26, 1915.

Rowfant Library - The Books of Rowfant

Locker began collecting shepherds and shepherdesses from Meissen porcelain . Louis XVI furniture, paintings and engravings by old masters, as well as Chinese porcelain and East Asian antiques were soon added. When that became too expensive for him at some point, he specialized in rare books and etchings from the 16th century. He collected small volumes of poetry and drama from around 1590 to 1610. These formed the core of his collection, which soon grew larger. He owned Caxtons and the works of poets from the previous century. Rare editions of Sidney, Spenser, Churchyard, Middleton, Herbert, Herrick, Dekker, Chapman and many other writers of the 16th and 17th centuries were to be found here. Shakespeare is represented by a perfect edition of the first folio, the first editions of Lucretia, the sonnets and poems, and a total of thirty of the dramas, many of which are present in the original edition.

The library is also stocked with many first editions by Byron, Tennyson, Browning, and other recent English poets. Many have a personal dedication to Locker-Lampson himself. The collection also includes handwritten letters, pictures, and drawings or etchings.

In 1886, Bernard Quaritch published a catalog of this collection with a foreword by Locker-Lampson.

After his death, his son Godfrey and Locker-Lampson's son-in-law Augustine Birrell wrote an addendum on the works that had been added since the catalog was published in 1886 until Locker's death.

In 1906, Dodd, Mead & Company of New York sold a selection of 100 books from Locker's collection. In 1909, the same company offered the signatures separately for sale.

Works

  • London Lyrics . Classic Reprint Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2012
  • Poems , by Frederick Locker. There were only 100 copies in print. Printed by Whittingham and Wilson, the Chiswick Press, London 1868, Text Archive - Internet Archive
  • Lyra elegantiarum: A Collection of Some of the Best Specimens of Vers de Société and Vers D'Occasion in the English Language by deceased Authors . Edited by Frederick Locker-Lampson. A new and revised edition. Edward Moxon & Co., London 1867, Text Archive - Internet Archive
  • Patchwork . (A Collection of short Stories and Verses). Smith, Elder & Co., London 1879, Text Archive - Internet Archive
  • Frederick Locker-Lampson: My confidences. An autobiographical sketch addressed to my descendants . Edited by Augustine Birrell. 2nd edition. Smith, Elder, & Co. London 1896 archive.org

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Collingwood 2010 Festival Website ( Memento of the original from November 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. with Timeline and Biography @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.collingwood2010.co.uk
  2. ↑ The Naval Gallery of 1824–1936 and the Greenwich Hospital art collection ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / rmg-dev.sites.ac
  3. ↑ William Hogarth "David Garrick and his Wife" .
  4. ↑ The Spectator , January 17, 1880
  5. ^ Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography on Victorianweb
  6. ^ A Selection from the works of Frederick Locker . Text archive - Internet Archive
  7. ^ Reference to book and club in Columbia University Library
  8. ↑ Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson . In: My Confidences , p. 384, Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  9. ^ Godfrey Locker-Lampson in Balbrorough
  10. ↑ Frederick Locker-Lampson on thepeerage.com , accessed August 18, 2015.
  11. ^ Conway Victor Fisher-Rowe
  12. ^ The Rowfant library. A Catalog of the printed Books, Manuscripts, Authographed Letters, Drawings and Pictures . Collected by Frederick Locker-Lampson. Text archive - Internet Archive
  13. ↑ An Appendix to the Rowfant Library: A Catalog of the Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters etc. collected since the printing of the first catalog in 1886 by the late Frederick Locker-Lampson . Printed by Charles Wittingham & Co. at the Chiswick Press, London 1900 Text Archive - Internet Archive
  14. ^ The Rowfant Books: A Selection of One Hundred Titles from the Collection of Frederick Locker offered for sale by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York 1906, Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  15. ↑ The Rowfant autographs; Frederick Locker's great album containing his choicest specimens of the very rarest autographs, among them many of the worl's most famous names . Offered for Sale by Dodd, Mead & company New York, 1909
personal data
SURNAME Locker-Lampson, Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet and writer of the Victorian era
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich , Kent
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1895
Place of death Rowfant , Sussex