Francis Burnand - Life and Career

Life and Career

Burnand was born in London, England, the son of Francis Burnand, a London stockbroker and his first wife Emma Cowley (a descendant of poet and dramatist Hannah Cowley), who died when young Francis was only eight years old. Burnand studied at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1858. There he founded the Amateur Dramatic Club in 1855, its first dramatic club. He studied to become a priest, converting to Roman Catholicism, which angered his father, who withdrew support. Burnand eventually decided that he had no vocation for the priesthood, and his father then supported his study of law. He practised as an attorney for a short time and later managed a theatre, but his greater interest lay in writing for the stage. He became a prolific dramatist, writing nearly 200 comedies and burlesques.

While still in school, Burnand submitted some illustrations to Punch, one or two of which were published. In the early 1860s, he edited the journal The Glow-Worm. He then joined the staff of Fun, but when that magazine rejected his proposed 1863 literary burlesque of serialised as Mokeanna, or the White Witness, he moved to Punch. A later literary burlesque published in Punch was Strapmore, parodying Ouida's Strathmore. He contributed to Punch for 45 years, serving as its editor for 26 years. He took over the editor job from Tom Taylor in 1880 and retired in 1906 when he was succeeded by Sir Owen Seaman.

Burnand banned Punch's early attacks on Catholicism, but he was unable to remove antisemitic jokes. Burnand's later contributions became increasingly wordy and anecdotal, relying on far-fetched puns, but he was a good judge of talent, and under him the paper prospered. In 1888, he acted as publisher of The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith, which is still in print.

In 1860, Burnand married Cecilia Victoria Ranoe (1841–1870), an actress. The couple produced five sons and two daughters. In 1874, he then married her sister, Rosina Payson Jones (d. 1924), a widow who had also been an actress under the name Rosina Ranoe. She had appeared in An Old Score by W. S. Gilbert. They had two sons and four daughters. Burnand lived for much of his life in Ramsgate and was a member of the Garrick Club in London.

After a winter of bronchitis, Burnand died in 1917 at his home in Ramsgate, Kent, at the age of 80. He was buried in the cemetery at St Augustine's Abbey church in Ramsgate.