Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Warre-Cornish, Francis Warre
WARRE - CORNISH, FRANCIS WARRE (1839–1916), teacher, author, and bibliophile, the second son of the Rev. Hubert Kestell Cornish, vicar of Bakewell and formerly fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, by his wife, Louisa, daughter of the Rev. Francis Warre, D.C.L., rector of Cheddon Fitzpaine, was born at Bakewell 8 May 1839. He adopted the surname Warre-Cornish in 1892. He went to Eton as a colleger, was Newcastle scholar in 1857, and passed in the same year to King's College, Cambridge. After being third classic in 1861, he returned to Eton as an assistant master in the same year. He was appointed vice-provost and librarian in 1893, resigned in April 1916, and died at Englefield Green, Windsor, on 28 August in that year. He married in 1866 Blanche, daughter of the Hon. William Ritchie, legal member of the council of the governor-general of India, and had eight children. His wife, sister of Sir Richmond Thackeray Ritchie [q.v.], wrote two successful novels and was a brilliant conversationalist.
Warre-Cornish was a singularly attractive man. Small and frail, with a gentle voice and quiet manners, he was not the typical schoolmaster. He was no martinet and was not methodical. But boys who wished to learn were inspired by his fine scholarship and his literary and historical knowledge. As a house-master, he was inclined to leave his boys to govern themselves; but their attachment to him was shown by a strong esprit de corps. When he received the charge of the manifold treasures of the college library he did most valuable work in discovering and adding to them. He had a wide knowledge of books and bindings and had made a special study of Aldines. He was a good musician. As an author he was versatile. Industrious in research, he wrote clearly and with distinction, and had a power of vivid portraiture. His chief work is a useful History of the English Church in the Nineteenth Century (1910). He also wrote a History of Chivalry (1901), a Life of Oliver Cromwell (1882), Jane Austen in the ‘English Men of Letters’ series (1913), and a translation of Catullus (1904), besides minor books and reviews. Sunningwell (1899) and Dr. Ashford and his Neighbours (1914) are in a different vein. They are graceful fictions, with little plot, embodying a slightly ironical view of life, expressed with a peculiar charm and sympathy. These indeed were the qualities which endeared him to his friends. He was never pontifical, and in his power of epigrammatic speech he did not spare himself. He was interested in almost everything, and there were few whom he did not fascinate. To those who knew him well he remains a model of mitis sapientia.
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