Francis Williamson

Francis Samuel Williamson (18 January 1865 - 6 February 1936) as an Australian poet and schoolteacher. [ [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120571b.htm Australian Dictionary of Biography: Williamson, Francis Samuel (1865 - 1936)] Retrieved 28.9.2007]

Early life

Williamson was the son of an English-born coachmaker and his Scottish wife. He was born in Fitzroy, Victoria, and attended Scotch College, Melbourne.

Teaching career

In 1882 he was appointed as a pupil-teacher at Flemington State School and the following year moved to North Melbourne State School. He was over 183 cm tall, well built, carried himself well and had a rich voice.Williamson taught at Wesley College, Melbourne from 1888 until 1894 under Arthur Way's headship. He was popular as a junior master and was known as Long Bill. His classes were informal and easy-going for the boys - a situation not entirely agreeable to all his students. As an Old Boy, Sir Frederic Eggleston [ [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080447b.htm Australian Dictionary of Biography: Eggleston, Sir Frederic William (1875 - 1954)] Retrieved 28.9.2007] was severe: "while a good poet who inspired many boys with a love of poetry, Williamson was irregular and though he was kept on for many years … became almost an outcast." Williamson moved to Sydney in 1894 join Arthur Lucas's staff at Newington College. While at Newington he wrote the words for the school song, "Dear Newingtonia". In 1902 he returned to Wesley to teach, to coach rowing and cricket and to serve as an officer of cadets. In 1904 he was dismissed for drunkenness. The rest of Williamson's teaching career was spent as a locum in the Victorian Department of Education. He was a temporary head teacher in fifty-four rural schools between 1905 and 1930

Creative career

With Bernard O'Dowd he belonged to a discussion group called "The Heretics". A collection of Williamson's poetry was published by Thomas Lothian [ [http://calisto.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-70/t1-g-t2.html The La Trobe Journal] Retrieved 28.9.2007] in 1912 and it contained twenty-eight poems. His best known poem, "The Magpie's Song", appeared in several anthologies over the next two decades. In 1940 a new book of poetry containing fifty-five poems was published with a forward by Sir John Latham. He saw "a lyrical quality of delicate beauty" in Williamson's work. On his retirement the Commonwealth awarded him a literary pension. Frank S Williamson, the name under which he was published, died in Melbourne having never married. Percival Serle considered him a strange case of an educated man writing a fair amount of verse of small merit until in middle life 'something blossomed in him and he wrote half a dozen quite beautiful poems'.

Bibliography

* R. H. Croll, I Recall (Melb, 1939)
* G. Blainey (et al), Wesley College (Melb, 1967)
* D.S. Macmillan, Newington College 1863-1963 (Syd, 1963)
* P.L. Swain Newington, Across the Years 1893-1998 (Syd, 1999)

References