Frederick Locker-Lampson
Encyclopedia
Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821–1895) was an English
man of letters, bibliophile and poet
.
, youngest son of the Captain William Locker
who gave Nelson
the memorable advice "to lay a Frenchman close, and beat him." His mother, Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Boucher, was a daughter of the Revd. Jonathan Boucher
, vicar of Epsom and friend of George Washington
.
After a desultory education, Frederick Locker began life in a colonial broker's office. Soon he obtained a clerkship in Somerset House
, whence he was transferred to Lord Haddington
's private office at the Admiralty
. Here he became deputy-reader and precis writer. In 1850 he married Lady Charlotte Bruce, daughter of the Lord Elgin
who brought the famous marbles
to England, and sister of Lady Augusta Stanley. After his marriage he left the Civil Service, in consequence of ill-health.
In 1857 he published London Lyrics, a slender volume of 90 pages, which, with subsequent extensions, constitutes his poetical legacy. Lyra Elegantiarum (1867), an anthology of light and familiar verse, and Patchwork (1879), a book of extracts, were his only other publications in his lifetime.
In 1872 Lady Charlotte Locker died. Two years later Locker married Miss Hannah Jane Lampson, the only daughter of Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson
, Bart., of Rowfant House, Sussex
, and in 1885 he added his wife's surname to his own to form a new family surname, Locker-Lampson. He died at Rowfant on 30 May 1895 and is buried in Worth churchyard near Crawley, Sussex.
He had five children: Eleanor by his first wife, and Godfrey
, Dorothy, Oliver
and Maud by his second. Eleanor married first Lionel Tennyson, younger son of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and after his death married the writer and Liberal politician Augustine Birrell
.
, the Brownings
, Carlyle
, Dickens, George Eliot
, Leigh Hunt, Ruskin
, Tennyson
, Thackeray
and Trollope
. He was also a mentor to the illustrator artists Randolph Caldecott
and Kate Greenaway
.
He was a noted bibliophile and one the foremost exponents of the "Cabinet" style of book collecting
. He catalogued his own collection of rare books, first editions, prints and manuscripts in a volume named after his family home in Sussex, the Rowfant Library (1886). An Appendix compiled by his elder son, Godfrey, was published in 1900. The Rowfant Club, a Cleveland-based society of book collectors, is named after his home.
As a poet, Locker belongs to the choir who deal with the gay rather than the grave in verse, with the polished and witty rather than the lofty or emotional. His good taste kept him as far from the broadly comic on the one side as his kind heart saved him from the purely cynical on the other. To something of Prior
, of Praed
and of Hood
he added qualities of his own which lent his work distinction in no wise diminished by his unwearied endeavour after directness and simplicity.
(1902) William James wrote of the 'amiable' personality shown in this book: "This is a complex, a tender, a submissive, and graceful state of mind. For myself, I should have no objection to calling it on the whole a religious state of mind, although I dare say that to many of you it may seem too listless and half-hearted to merit so good a name."
Frederick Locker-Lampson: A Character Sketch, which includes a selection of his letters, was composed and edited by his son-in-law, Augustine Birrell
in 1920. This gives an interesting idea of his personality and literary connections as well as notes on his book collection.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
man of letters, bibliophile and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Overview
He was born at Greenwich Hospital. His father, who was Civil Commissioner of the Hospital, was Edward Hawke LockerEdward Hawke Locker
Edward Hawke Locker was an English watercolourist and administrator of the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich.-Life:...
, youngest son of the Captain William Locker
William Locker (Royal Navy)
William Locker was an officer in the Royal Navy, who served with distinction during the eighteenth century. He rose to the rank of captain and held the posts of flag captain and commodore.-Family and early years:...
who gave Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
the memorable advice "to lay a Frenchman close, and beat him." His mother, Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Boucher, was a daughter of the Revd. Jonathan Boucher
Jonathan Boucher
Jonathan Boucher was an English clergyman, teacher and philologist.-Early career:Boucher was born in Blencogo, near Wigton, Cumberland, and educated at the Wigton grammar school. After training in Workington, Jonathan became a teacher at St Bees School and in 1759 went to Virginia, where he became...
, vicar of Epsom and friend of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
.
After a desultory education, Frederick Locker began life in a colonial broker's office. Soon he obtained a clerkship in Somerset House
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...
, whence he was transferred to Lord Haddington
Thomas Hamilton, 9th Earl of Haddington
Thomas Hamilton, 9th Earl of Haddington KT PC FRS , known as Lord Binning from 1794 to 1828, was a British Conservative politician and statesman.-Background and education:...
's private office at the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
. Here he became deputy-reader and precis writer. In 1850 he married Lady Charlotte Bruce, daughter of the Lord Elgin
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine was a Scottish nobleman and diplomat, known for the removal of marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. Elgin was the second son of Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and his wife Martha Whyte...
who brought the famous marbles
Elgin Marbles
The Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles , are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures , inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens...
to England, and sister of Lady Augusta Stanley. After his marriage he left the Civil Service, in consequence of ill-health.
In 1857 he published London Lyrics, a slender volume of 90 pages, which, with subsequent extensions, constitutes his poetical legacy. Lyra Elegantiarum (1867), an anthology of light and familiar verse, and Patchwork (1879), a book of extracts, were his only other publications in his lifetime.
In 1872 Lady Charlotte Locker died. Two years later Locker married Miss Hannah Jane Lampson, the only daughter of Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson
Curtis Lampson
Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, 1st Baronet , was an Anglo-American fur merchant, best remembered for his promotion of the transatlantic telegraph cable....
, Bart., of Rowfant House, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, and in 1885 he added his wife's surname to his own to form a new family surname, Locker-Lampson. He died at Rowfant on 30 May 1895 and is buried in Worth churchyard near Crawley, Sussex.
He had five children: Eleanor by his first wife, and Godfrey
Godfrey Locker-Lampson
Godfrey Lampson Tennyson Locker-Lampson MP PC was a British Conservative politician, poet and essayist.-Birth and education:...
, Dorothy, Oliver
Oliver Locker-Lampson
Commander Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson, CMG, DSO was a British politician and naval officer...
and Maud by his second. Eleanor married first Lionel Tennyson, younger son of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and after his death married the writer and Liberal politician Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell PC, KC was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.-Early life:...
.
Literary and bibliophilic legacy
Chronic ill-health debarred Locker from any active part in life, but it did not prevent his delighting a wide circle of friends by his gifts as a host and raconteur, and from accumulating many treasures as a connoisseur. He was acquainted with practically all the major literary figures of the age, including Matthew ArnoldMatthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, the Brownings
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
, Dickens, George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
, Leigh Hunt, Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, Tennyson
Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the first Baron Tennyson, was an English poet.Tennyson may also refer to:-People:* Baron Tennyson, the barony itself** Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet...
, Thackeray
Thackeray
Thackeray is the name of:*William Makepeace Thackeray, a novelist*Bal Thackeray, an Indian politician*Edward Talbot Thackeray, a recipient of the Victoria Cross*A David Thackeray, a South African astronomer...
and Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
. He was also a mentor to the illustrator artists Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honor. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognized by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced...
and Kate Greenaway
Kate Greenaway
Catherine Greenaway , known as Kate Greenaway, was an English children's book illustrator and writer, who spent much of her childhood at Rolleston, Nottinghamshire. She studied at what is now the Royal College of Art in London, which at that time had a separate section for women, and was headed by...
.
He was a noted bibliophile and one the foremost exponents of the "Cabinet" style of book collecting
Book collecting
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given individual collector. The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and collect...
. He catalogued his own collection of rare books, first editions, prints and manuscripts in a volume named after his family home in Sussex, the Rowfant Library (1886). An Appendix compiled by his elder son, Godfrey, was published in 1900. The Rowfant Club, a Cleveland-based society of book collectors, is named after his home.
As a poet, Locker belongs to the choir who deal with the gay rather than the grave in verse, with the polished and witty rather than the lofty or emotional. His good taste kept him as far from the broadly comic on the one side as his kind heart saved him from the purely cynical on the other. To something of Prior
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
, of Praed
Winthrop Mackworth Praed
Winthrop Mackworth Praed was an English politician and poet.-Early life:He was born in London. The family name of Praed was derived from the marriage of the poet's great-grandfather to a Cornish heiress. Winthrop's father, William Mackworth Praed, was a serjeant-at-law. His mother belonged to the...
and of Hood
Thomas Hood
Thomas Hood was a British humorist and poet. His son, Tom Hood, became a well known playwright and editor.-Early life:...
he added qualities of his own which lent his work distinction in no wise diminished by his unwearied endeavour after directness and simplicity.
Biographies
A posthumous volume of his memoirs, entitled My Confidences, appeared in 1896. In The Varieties of Religious ExperienceThe Varieties of Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by the Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James that comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on "Natural Theology" delivered at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland between 1901 and 1902.These lectures...
(1902) William James wrote of the 'amiable' personality shown in this book: "This is a complex, a tender, a submissive, and graceful state of mind. For myself, I should have no objection to calling it on the whole a religious state of mind, although I dare say that to many of you it may seem too listless and half-hearted to merit so good a name."
Frederick Locker-Lampson: A Character Sketch, which includes a selection of his letters, was composed and edited by his son-in-law, Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell PC, KC was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.-Early life:...
in 1920. This gives an interesting idea of his personality and literary connections as well as notes on his book collection.