WILLIAMSON, Frank Samuel (1865-1936)

poet

was born at Melbourne on 19 January 1865. He was educated at the Scotch College, Melbourne, and was for some years a teacher in secondary schools in Melbourne and Sydney, but occasional bouts of intemperance made it difficult for him to keep his positions. He had the reputation of being an excellent master, especially in English. In later years he was attached to the education department of Victoria and taught in a large number of small country schools. As a young man he had written verse of small merit, but in middle life for a short period he appears to have been inspired by the scenery of his native country to do better work which he polished with great care. In 1912 his one volume of poems, Purple and Gold, appeared. Some of the poems in this volume have the true touch and have been deservedly included in several anthologies of Australian verse. He retired from the education department at 65. He had been granted a Commonwealth literary pension, he had some good friends, and he spent the rest of his life in Melbourne not unhappily. Beyond a few newspaper articles and an occasional set of verses Williamson appears to have done no other writing. He died at the Melbourne hospital on 6 February 1936. He was unmarried.

The first edition of Purple and Gold had some unfortunate misprints, but these were corrected in a second and enlarged edition published in 1940 with a portrait.

Personal knowledge; letter from Williamson; Melbourne Hospital records; Young Victoria, June 1881; Sir John Latham, Introduction to second edition of Purple and Gold.