THE BIRDING BIOGRAPHY OF THE REVD FRANCIS LINLEY BLATHWAYT
This is the story of one of those stalwarts of England from the Victorian & Edwardian eras, the parson naturalist.
Francis Blathwayt was a child of the Raj, whose mother tragically died when he was only three. Sent to England to live with an aunt, he passed through private school and Oxford, and was ordained into the Church of England in Lincoln.
He held a curacy in Monks Road, Lincoln, during the typhoid epidemic. From 1909-1916 he was Rector at St Peter’s church, Doddington. Later, he would move to the south-west, though he sustained his natural history links with Lincolnshire and with the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union.
Francis belonged to the family who owned Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire. He had (in his own view) the misfortune to inherit it. He passed it on to his cousin with the proviso that he could be Rector of the church there. In 2005, elderly locals could remember him, cycling out in his dog-collar as evening fell to listen to nightingales. His birding was pioneering; he belonged to the generation that replaced the gun with binoculars.
Francis’ uncle, Colonel Linley Blathwayt, another wildlife enthusiast, opened his house to the Suffragette Movement – a courageous act at the time.
Francis was a very proper clergyman, who loved birds and his flock in equal measure. There is even extant correspondence with the bishop of Lincoln about the ethics of whether or not curates should dance at society events!
Though compiled in 2005, the information in this volume remains entirely accurate. As well as the Raj years, it documents Francis’ twenty-two volumes of bird notes, his multiple papers and mentions in bird literature, and his adventures (like towing a tiny a caravan on the back of an early, possibly Morris, car so the family could watch rare Red Kites in Wales). His address as President of the LNU remains seminal in its approach.
He died, a country parson, in 1953, still raising money for his beloved parish church.
THE BIRDING BIOGRAPHY OF THE REVD FRANCIS LINLEY BLATHWAYT
This is the story of one of those stalwarts of England from the Victorian & Edwardian eras, the parson naturalist.
Francis Blathwayt was a child of the Raj, whose mother tragically died when he was only three. Sent to England to live with an aunt, he passed through private school and Oxford, and was ordained into the Church of England in Lincoln.
He held a curacy in Monks Road, Lincoln, during the typhoid epidemic. From 1909-1916 he was Rector at St Peter’s church, Doddington. Later, he would move to the south-west, though he sustained his natural history links with Lincolnshire and with the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union.
Francis belonged to the family who owned Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire. He had (in his own view) the misfortune to inherit it. He passed it on to his cousin with the proviso that he could be Rector of the church there. In 2005, elderly locals could remember him, cycling out in his dog-collar as evening fell to listen to nightingales. His birding was pioneering; he belonged to the generation that replaced the gun with binoculars.
Francis’ uncle, Colonel Linley Blathwayt, another wildlife enthusiast, opened his house to the Suffragette Movement – a courageous act at the time.
Francis was a very proper clergyman, who loved birds and his flock in equal measure. There is even extant correspondence with the bishop of Lincoln about the ethics of whether or not curates should dance at society events!
Though compiled in 2005, the information in this volume remains entirely accurate. As well as the Raj years, it documents Francis’ twenty-two volumes of bird notes, his multiple papers and mentions in bird literature, and his adventures (like towing a tiny a caravan on the back of an early, possibly Morris, car so the family could watch rare Red Kites in Wales). His address as President of the LNU remains seminal in its approach.
He died, a country parson, in 1953, still raising money for his beloved parish church.