Francis Joseph M. Patmore was born in Hastings in 1883. He was the son of the poet Coventry Patmore and his third wife Harriet, nee Robinson. Coventry Patmore (1823 - 1896) was the author of the famous poem "The Angel in the House" which was a recipe for a happy and harmonious marriage, published in 1854 and inspired by his first wife Emily who died in 1862.
Francis was educated at Beaumont College, a Jesuit boarding school in Berkshire in the south of England that closed in 1967. In 1902 he was Captain of the school.
When war broke out in 1914, Francis volunteered, was commissioned into the Hampshire Regiment and sent to Mesopotamia. Captain Patmore was was taken prisoner at the fall of Kut-el-Amara.
Due to the extremely harsh conditions experienced by WW1 Prisoners of War in Turkish prisons, his health suffered and Francis became a semi-invalid. He wrote poems while in prison. An example of his work was published in the following anthology:
"Valour and Vision: Poems of the War, 1914 - 1918", published by Longmans, Green in 1920, which can be found on Archive here http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924027944358/cu31924027944358_djvu.txt
After his recovery, when he lived in Lymington, Hampshire, Francis moved to Kenya where he became a coffee planter and died at the age of 49 on 18th April 1932.
Details about Captain Francis Patmore's capture are here: http://poolemuseumsociety.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/dorset-and-mesopotamia/
I have not been able to find a photograph of Francis Patmore. If anyone has one, please get in touch. Many thanks.
