Francis Hastings Doyle

Sir Francis Hastings Charles Doyle, 2nd Baronet (21 August 1810 – 8 June 1888) was a British poet.^[1]

"Poetry" — Doyle as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, November 1877

Biography

Doyle was born at Nunappleton near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, to a family which produced several army officers, including his father, Major-General Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, 1st Baronet, created a baronet in 1828.^[2][3][4] His mother was Diana Elizabeth Milner (died 1828), daughter of Sir William Milner, 3rd Baronet of Nunappleton. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1839.^[5]

Doyle was educated at Eton College. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1828, graduating B.A. in 1832 with a degree in classics. He was a Fellow of All Souls College from 1835 to 1845.^[6][7] Among his Oxford friends was William Gladstone, at whose marriage he was best man, but in later life their political opinions widely differed.^[7] Studying law from 1832, he was called to the Bar in 1837 at the Inner Temple, and went the Northern Circuit.^[6][8]

Later Doyle held fiscal appointments, becoming in 1846 receiver-general of Customs, a post he held to 1869. He moved in 1869 to commissioner of Customs, and held that position to 1883.^[1]

Doyle was elected in 1867 Professor of Poetry at Oxford. He held the post to 1877.^[1][8]

Works

Doyle was known as a poet mostly for ballads including The Red Thread of Honour (translated into Pashto), The Private of the Buffs, and The Loss of the Birkenhead.^[3][1] He published:

• Miscellaneous Verses (1834)^[7]
• Two Destinies (1844)^[7]
• Oedipus, King of Thebes (1849)^[7]
• The Return of the Guards: And Other Poems (1866)^[4][7][9]
• Lectures on Poetry: Delivered at Oxford (Second Series) (1877). Includes Installation Ode, and other poems.^[4][10] In 1869 some of the first series lectures Doyle had delivered were published in book form. One was his appreciation of William Barnes.^[7] An essay on John Henry Newman's The Dream of Gerontius, from the second series, was translated into French.^[1]
• Robin Hood's Bay: An Ode Addressed to the English People (1878), anonymous^[4][11]
• Reminiscences and Opinions of Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, 1813-1885 (1886)^[7][12]

Family

In 1844, Doyle married Sidney Williams-Wynn (died 1867), daughter of the MP Charles Williams-Wynn. The couple had three sons and two daughters:^[5]

• The eldest son Francis Granville Doyle (1846–1882), in the 2nd Dragoon Guards, died of typhoid fever after serving in the Anglo-Egyptian War.^[5][13]
• The second son Everard Hastings Doyle (1852–1933) succeeded to the baronetcy. He was Clerk of Committees at the House of Commons, and died unmarried.^[5]
• Arthur Havelock James Doyle succeeded as 4th Baronet.^[5]
• The elder daughter Mary Annabel (died 1924) married in 1885 Charles Carmichael Lacaita, MP and botanist.^[5][14]
• The younger daughter Sidney Annora died unmarried in 1873.^[5]