Francis Thompson

THOMPSON, Francis. b. Preston, Lancashire, 18 December 1859; d. London, 13 November 1907. His parents were Catholic converts, and in 1870 Francis was sent to St Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw, near Durham, to be educated and then trained for the priesthood. He proved unsuited to that vocation, and became a medical student at Owens College, Manchester (1877-83), but left without qualifying as a doctor. He then lived a life of poverty and destitution in London, begging in the streets, taking opium, and being sheltered by a generous prostitute, until he was discovered by Wilfrid and Alice Meynell, poets and writers. They published some of his poems and essays, sent him to monasteries to be cured of...