Captain Francis Horatio Evory Townshend MC OBE (6A26)
| Date of Birth: | 10 May 1887 |
|---|---|
| Date of Death: | dunm 10 Jun 1974 |
| Generation: | 7th |
| Residence: | Unknown |
| Father: | Thomas Achilles Townsend [6A14] |
| Mother: | Carmichael, Eveline Victoria |
| Spouse: | Unmarried |
| Issue: | None |
| See Also: | Table VIA ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree |
Notes for Captain Francis Horatio Evory Townshend (Frank) MC OBE Croix de Chevalier
Frank was born in Birchill, Co Cork and was educated at school in Bedford.
Frank was commissioned into the Royal Engineers from the Royal Military Academy on 25 July 1906 (1) following which he served in India in the Public Works Department for over three years. Following this he travelled in southern Persia and northern Arabia and returned to England at the outbreak of the Great War having been promoted to Lieutenant in 1908.
It is not known when he was promoted Captain but he is shown as such in an entry in the London Gazette dated 31 December 1915 which records that he was Mentioned in Despatches (2) by Field-Marshal French, Commander-in-Chief, the British Army in France. Frank clearly stayed in France with the Field Army and was awarded the Military Cross (3) and Croix de Chevalier (4) in the early months of 1916. In April 1917 he was posted to the staff of the Chief Engineer, the British Expeditionary Force, and remained there until March 1918. Appointed OBE “For services with the British Expeditionary Force in France" on 4 June 1918 (5) Frank finally left the army, still as a Captain, on 15 August 1926 (6).
Following the war Frank was given two years leave during which he returned to India, travelled extensively and served as Under Secretary to the Government of Bombay for a time. His other achievements include studying art at Ecole Julien in Paris, building studios in Paris, starting a company for hand printing on silk and directing the Institute of Higher Chinese Studies on the Riviera.
He wrote five books which are now all out of print; Earth (1929), Heaven (1930), Becoming (1939), Amen (1952) and Hell (1955). A review of his book 'Earth' throws some light on Frank's writing “the most important book ever written about mankind and our relationship to all things. The author, Frank Townshend, was a philosopher, poet and prophet who shares visions of a hopeful future for humanity."
The website for Keith Lay's choral work 'Vision of the Earth', which is based on Frank's book 'Earth',throws light on Frank as an individual - Frank Townshend’s optimistic work is part of a popular literary trend in spiritualism that began in the late 1800s and lasted through the 1930s. Promulgated through books and magazines, these religious concepts broke from the common conservative dogmatism and politics of the mid 19th Century. Truth Seeking, New Thought, Transcendentalism, Universalism, Theosophism, and Religious Science are examples of late 19th Century spiritual ideologies that all embraced science and answered to no organized spiritual authority.
Frank has the distinction of being the most highly decorated member of the Townsend family.
(1) London Gazette 27944 page 5869 dated 28 August 1906.
(2) https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29422/supplement/71
(3) London Gazette 29438 page 581 dated 11 January 1916.
(4) London Gazette 29486 page 2068 dated 24 February 1916.
(5) London Gazette 30730 page 6713.
(6) London Gazette 33192 page 5444.