Sir Frank Chalton Francis has been described as the most
significant figure of the 20th century in the British Museum’s
collection of printed books.
He was born in Liverpool on 5th October 1901, the only child
of Frank William Francis, a provision broker, and his wife Elizabeth, née
Chalton. At the time of his birth the family lived at 34 Blantyre Road L15,
moving by the time of the 1911 census to 66 Gorsedale Road L18. He was educated
at the Liverpool Institute and Liverpool University, undertaking post-graduate
studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1923 to 1925, where he specialised
in early Greek philosophy.
He taught at Holyhead County School for year before joining
the British Museum in 1926, the start of an association which was to last over
40 years. He began as an assistant keeper in the department of printed books,
soon becoming the museum’s leading expert in Scandinavian languages. His early
work marked him as a skilled bibliographer, recognised in 1936 when he was
appointed editor The Library, the journal of the Bibliographical Society,
later being appointed the society’s secretary and president in 1964. In 1959 he
was appointed director and principal librarian of the British Museum. He
ensured the development of new galleries, including the Duveen, which from 1962
housed the Elgin Marbles. It should be noted that it was during his stewardship
that schoolboys knocked a leg off one of the Elgin Marbles, a fact kept secret
for many years lest it would lend weight to the claims that they should be
returned to Greece.
He brought in important organisational changes, being
largely responsible for the British Museum Act of 1963 which gave the Natural
History Museum complete independence from the British Museum. Whilst he was not
able to engineer the splitting of the library from the rest of the museum he
did develop plans for a new building which after his retirement came to
fruition as the British Library. He was also one of those who championed the
use of computers in bibliography.
Appointed CB in 1968 and knighted in 1970, her received a
host of honours from academic establishments across the globe. He retired in
1968 and moved to Buckinghamshire, where he died aged 87 on 15th
September 1988.
In 1927 he married Katrina McClennon in Liverpool, the
couple having two sons and one daughter.
