 Birth Notes:
http://www.geneagraphie.com/getperson.php?personID=I630368
And
http://www.francisbaconsociety.co.uk/baconiana/volume-1-number-4/obituary/
Death Notes:
http://www.francisbaconsociety.co.uk/baconiana/volume-1-number-4/obituary/
And
http://www.philipcarr-gomm.com/my-father-francis-bacon-and-don-quixote/
Sources of information or noted events in his life were:
• Web Based Info. http://www.geni.com/people/Jane-MILLAR/6000000007575816279?through=6000000007575597022
And
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Carr-Gomm
• Obituary. FRANCIS EARDLEY CARR-GOMM 1924 '96 2009
Francis Carr was a remarkable man with a wonderful open-mind to the end of his life. He loved to question the accepted throughout his life. Recently he had decided on an improvement to Descartes' aphorism 'Cogito Ergo Sum'. He felt 'Disputio ergo sum' summed up human nature more effectively, and he meant this, not in a derogatory way. Instead he saw our ability to disagree with each other as an attribute of intelligence, and enjoyed nothing more than a good debate. To hold to one's views, to maintain one's own unique stance, even if it meant standing in opposition to prevailing opinion, was one of his strongest attributes.
He was born in Warwickshire in 1924. At the age of 18, as soon as he left school, he joined the army where he joined the 60th Rifles and became a lieutenant. At the age of twenty, he was sent to the front line in Italy in the autumn of 1944, after a training that was so basic it didn't include even the most rudimentary first aid, and he soon found himself having to give orders to men who knew more about fighting than he did. Although he was only in action for 8 months, his experiences there marked him for life.
The war over he tried to pick up the thread of his education. He enrolled at London University's School of Slavonic Studies to study Russian. This was a time when many left-wing intellectuals were finding themselves attracted to communism, which Francis found infuriating. He knew about the atrocities of Stalin, and later wrote a book about the dictator's horrendous precursor, Ivan the Terrible. Unable to cope with the prevailing sympathies of his fellow students and professors, and having failed to get a job with the Intelligence services, he took on a job as private secretary to Lord Willoughby de Eresby, the MP for Rutland. In 1948 he met and married Jane, the love of his life.
Francis tried his hand in the world of publishing, and worked on the staff of a new magazine, The Ambassador, and then got a job copy-writing for the official publisher in England to the Holy See. From the world of Catholic publishing he moved on to working as a history teacher for Carlisle & Gregson, cramming students for university.
It was then that Francis decided to start his own magazine, which had a unique slant. It was a history magazine, but unlike its rival History Today, it included articles on the future too, and so was called Past & Future. It ran for seven years, during which time Francis got to know a wide range of scholars, eccentrics and artists. Although Past & Future was a professionally produced magazine, Francis ran it from the dining room table at home, cutting and pasting text together with prodigious quantities of cow-gum: a technique that he continued to use throughout his life, and which members of the Bacon Society experienced in his invaluable Shakespeare Authorship publications. In the late 1960's, he and Jane started 'Residence Recitals'. Their idea was to present recitals of music, poetry and the writings of famous people in the actual houses they had lived in. The idea was elegant and simple: research blue plaque houses, find those that had rooms large enough to welcome the public, and then if permission could be obtained to hold an event, create a programme that would showcase the work of its famous resident.
Over the years Francis created dozens of well-crafted recitals based on published writings and private letters that he would then give to often well-known actors to read. He became an impresario, directing famous names like John Gielgud, Michael MacLiammor, and Barbara Jefford. The Recitals successfully ran for 12 years.
All this while, when he was editing Past & Future or working with the recitals, Francis was also busy with his passion for solving the mystery of the authorship of the Shakespeare plays. He published articles in his magazine about it, founded The Shakespeare Authorship Information Centre, and for over thirty years, right up until he died, edited a digest of press comment about the question, that he entitled The Stratford Tragi-Comedy.
In 1969 he brought a private prosecution against the Shakespeare Trustees on the grounds that there was not evidence of Shakespeare's Birthplace being genuine. The Trustees never denied the charge but defended themselves with a 'plea of avoidance', and the case was dismissed. He favoured the theory that Francis Bacon wrote the plays, and was a member of the Francis Bacon Society, travelling to their meetings right up until earlier this year. He also believed that Bacon wrote Don Quixote, normally attributed to Cervantes, and in 2004 his bookWho Wrote Don Quixote? was published, that laid out his theory in detail.
One of Francis' greatest attributes was his active mind that constantly questioned received wisdom and enjoyed challenging the status quo. When he was 48 his first book was published: European Erotic Art. This was followed nine years later by his biography Ivan the Terrible and then his most successful book: Mozart & Constanze.
In the last six months of his life he wrote a play about Pushkin, who died in a duel defending his honour in St.Petersburg.
Ronald Hutton, who is the Professor of History at Bristol University, and a Commissioner of English Heritage commented that Francis was a 'remarkable personality' and 'a significant player on the English cultural scene of his time, and although his literary causes were unorthodox, I think that posterity will be interested in them.'
Nick Young and Philip Carr-Gomm
http://www.francisbaconsociety.co.uk/baconiana/volume-1-number-4/obituary/
Francis married Antoinette Jane Millar, daughter of Lawrence Peel Millar and Leaviss Irene Peel, on 24 Jul 1948 in Kensington, London, England.
Sources of information or noted events in their marriage were:
• Web Based Info. http://www.geneagraphie.com/getperson.php?personID=I630366&tree=1
And
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&uidh=000&rank=1&new=1&msT=1&MS_AdvCB=1&MSAV=2&gsfn_x=XO&gsln_x=XO&cp=0&cpxt=0&catBucket=rstp&_80018003=Carr-gomm&_F0005648=5c&_F0006310=3109&_80004003=Miller&db=ONSmarriage1984&r=5538&noredir=true&gss=angs-d&pcat=34&fh=0&h=58769820&recoff=&ml_rpos=1
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