Locker-Lampson, Frederick

(1821-1895)

   More often known as Frederick Locker, he was born at Greenwich Hospital (the Royal Naval Hospital for Seamen) where his father was civil commissioner. He held several clerking jobs and in 1842 he was transferred to the admiralty. Subsequently he became deputy reader and précis writer, until 1849, when his health broke down. In July 1850 he married Lady Charlotte Bruce, daughter of Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin, who brought the famous Elgin marbles to England. Chapman and Hall published his first collection of verse, London Lyrics, in 1857, and his anthology, Lyra Elegantiarum, was published in 1867. His wife died in 1872 and in 1874 he married Hannah Jane, only daughter of Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, of Rowfant, Sussex, and took the name of Lampson. He died at Rowfant. Some of his poems: "A Garden Lyric," "A Nice Correspondent," "At Her Window," "Loulou and Her Cat," "Love, Time and Death," "My Mistress's Boots," "On an Old Muff," "St. James's Street," "The Cuckoo," "The Jester's Plea," "The Skeleton in the Cupboard," "The Widow's Mite," "To My Grandmother."

   Sources: 101 Favorite Cat Poems. Sara L. Whittier, ed. Contemporary Books, 1991. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1929. The Home Book of Modern Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Henry Holt, 1953. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. Oxford University Press, 1971. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.