Editing Frederic Weatherly (section)

== Life and career ==
Weatherly was born and brought up in [[Portishead, Somerset]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gordanosociety.org.uk/weatherly.html|title=Weatherly - Gordano Civic Society|last=Gregory|first=Paul|website=www.gordanosociety.org.uk|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-10-02}}</ref> [[England]], the eldest son in the large family of Frederick Weatherly (1820–1910), a medical doctor, and his wife, Julia Maria, ''née'' Ford (1823–98). His birth was registered in the [[Bedminster, Bristol|Bedminster]] district of [[Bristol]] in the fourth quarter of 1848, and the 1851 census shows the family living at 5 Wood Hill, Portishead. He was educated at [[Hereford Cathedral School]] from 1859 to 1867, and he won a scholarship to [[Brasenose College, Oxford]], in 1867.<ref name=dnb>Pickles John D., [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46652 "Weatherly, Frederick Edward (1848–1929)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online edition, Oxford University Press, September 2004, accessed 29 August 2010. {{subscription required}}</ref> Among his tutors was [[Walter Pater]], who taught him about Italian art.<ref name=times/> Weatherly entered three times for the [[Newdigate Prize]] for poetry—without success.<ref name=times/> In 1868, he helped out members of the Brasenose rowing team under [[Walter Bradford Woodgate]], who had practised for the [[Stewards' Challenge Cup]] at [[Henley Royal Regatta]] without a cox. The race at the time was for [[coxed four]]s, and Weatherly volunteered to start the race with them and immediately jump out of the boat. He did so—and the team won—but they were disqualified.<ref name=times>''The Times'' obituary, 9 September 1929, p. 7</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Henley Royal Regatta : A celebration of 150 years|last= Burnell|first= Richard|author-link= Dickie Burnell|year= 1989|publisher= Heinemann Kingswood|isbn= 0-434-98134-6|page= 103}}</ref> Woodgate had made his point, and the race was later changed to one for [[coxless four]]s. Weatherly graduated with a degree in Classics in 1871, and in 1872 he married Anna Maria Hardwick (generally called "Minnie") of [[Axbridge]] in Somerset (d. 1920), with whom he had a son and two daughters. Weatherly and his wife later lived apart,<ref name=dnb/> and on the night of the 1881 census he is recorded as being on his own with his three young children and four servants at his house, Sevensprings, South Parks Road, Oxford. Weatherly and his wife later separated (around 1900).

Weatherly remained in Oxford, briefly working as a schoolmaster and then as a private tutor until 1887 when he qualified as a [[barrister]], practising first in London and then in the west of England. The 1901 census records him living as a boarder at 2 Harley Place in [[Clifton, Bristol|Clifton]], Bristol. The 1911 census shows him aged 62 living at 12 Penn Lea Road, Lower Weston, [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], in Somerset, with a Maude Eugenie Beatrice Weatherly, aged 53, from [[Esher]] in Surrey (who is recorded as his wife of nine years' standing), and their two servants. In fact, Weatherly and his wife Minnie never divorced: Maude Francfort used the name Weatherly while they lived together as husband and wife in Bath. Minnie lived on in seclusion in Portishead, financially supported by her husband until her death in 1920. The children remained loyal to her. Some time after 1911, Frederic and Maude moved to Grosvenor Lodge (now St Christopher's) in Belmont Road, [[Combe Down]], just outside Bath.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pipes calling for a new centenary Danny Boy song|work=BBC News |date=27 January 2013 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-21196494|access-date=3 October 2017}}</ref>

Weatherly remained active both as an author and as a barrister until the end of his life. ''[[The Times]]'' wrote of his dual career, "His fertility was extraordinary, and though it is easy to be contemptuous of his drawing-room lyrics, sentimental, humorous and patriotic, which are said to number about 3,000 altogether, it is certain that no practising barrister has ever before provided so much innocent pleasure."<ref name=times/> He celebrated his golden jubilee as a songwriter in 1919, at a dinner given for him by publishers and composers with whom he had been associated over the past fifty years.<ref name=times/> In his last years he was much in demand as a lecturer, broadcaster and [[public speaking|after-dinner speaker]].<ref name=times/>

[[File:Weatherly grave detail.jpg|thumbnail|Frederic Weatherly's grave (detail), Smallcombe Cemetery, Bath]]
[[File:Weatherly's grave, Smallcombe Cemetery, Bath.jpg|thumbnail|Frederic Weatherly's grave, [[Smallcombe Cemetery]], Bath]]
In early 1923, Maude Francfort died, and on 2 August 1923 Weatherly married Miriam Bryan, ''née'' Davies (d. 1941), widow of a well-known tenor, John Bryan.<ref name=times/> She had been nurse/companion to Maude in her final years. He was made a [[King's Counsel]], a senior barrister, in 1926. In the same year he published an autobiography, ''Piano and Gown''. He died at his home, Bathwick Lodge, Bath, after a short illness on 7 September 1929, at the age of 80.<ref name=dnb/> At his funeral in [[Bath Abbey]], the Londonderry Air, to which he had written the well-known words, was played as a voluntary.<ref>''The Times'', 12 September 1929, p. 15</ref> He was buried at [[Smallcombe Cemetery]]. A plaque unveiled by [[Clara Butt|Dame Clara Butt]] commemorates him at 10 Edward St in Bath.<ref>{{cite web|title=Frederick E Weatherly|url=http://bath-heritage.co.uk/weatherly.html|publisher=Bath Heritage|access-date=3 October 2017}}</ref>