Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 1840–23 September 1879), always known as Francis, or Frank, was born at The Rectory, Hardenhuish Lane, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, to the Rev. Robert Kilvert, Rector of Langley Burrell, Wiltshire, and Thermuthis, daughter of Walter Coleman and Thermuthis Ashe. He is remembered for his diaries, reflecting rural life in the 1870s, which were published several years after his death. December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Chippenham High Street Chippenham is a market town in Wiltshire, England. ... The word rector (ruler, from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings. ... St Peters, Langley Burrell. ... Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. ...

Professional Life

Kilvert was educated privately in Bath by his uncle, Francis Kilvert, before going up to Wadham College, Oxford. He then entered the Church and became a rural curate, working primarily in the Welsh Marches. From 1863 to 1864 he was Curate to his father at Langley Burrell, and in 1865 he became Curate of Clyro, Radnorshire; he remained there until 1872 when he rejoined his father at Langley Burrell. From 1876 to 1877 he was Vicar of St Harmon, Radnorshire, and from 1877 to his death in 1879 he was Vicar of Bredwardine, Herefordshire. In August 1879 he married Elizabeth Ann Rowland (1846-1911), whom he had met on a visit to Paris, but died a few days after returning from his honeymoon in Scotland. Now there is a society for Francis Kilvert Society which helds meetings for Francis Kilvert looking around places where Francis went and where he lived. There are many relations to Francis Kilvert surviving today, Muriel Kilvert and the Kilverts- Henry, Jill, Oliver, Tom and Alice For other uses, see Bath (disambiguation). ... College name Wadham College Named after Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham Established 1610 Sister College Christs College Warden Sir Neil Chalmers JCR President Ben Jasper Undergraduates 460 MCR President David Patrikarakos Graduates 180 Homepage Boatclub Wadham College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... From the Latin curatus (compare Curator), a curate is a person who is invested with the care, or cure (cura), of souls of a parish. ... In European history, marches are border regions between centres of power. ... 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar). ... 1864 (MDCCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... From the Latin curatus (compare Curator), a curate is a person who is invested with the care, or cure (cura), of souls of a parish. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Radnorshire (Welsh: Sir Faesyfed) is an inland traditional county of Wales, bounded to the north by Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, to the east by Herefordshire, to the south by Brecknockshire and to the west by Cardiganshire. ... 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... In the broadest sense, a vicar (from the Latin vicarius) is anyone acting as a substitute or agent for a superior (compare vicarious). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant. ... St Harmon (also known as Saint Harmon) is a village in Powys, Wales. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county and unitary district (known as County of Herefordshire) in the West Midlands region of England. ... August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen of the UK Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification...

Kilvert's Diary

Kilvert is best known as the author of voluminous diaries describing rural life. After his death from peritonitis, his frank and open diaries came into the possession of censorious relatives, and only three of the twenty or more volumes are known to have survived deliberate burning. These three volumes have since been used as the source for published collections. His Diaries are considered to be classics, and also of historical importance for the study of remote rural life and Victorian society. See Diary (novel) for the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. ...

Poet William Plomer published the most widely-known selection of the diaries, as Kilvert's Diary, 1870-1879 (Penguin, 1938—corrected in the 1960s, and with an abridged and illustrated version for children published as Ardizzone's Kilvert in 1976). A somewhat different selection from that of Plomer was published as Journal of a Country Curate: Selections from the Diary of Francis Kilvert by The Folio Society in 1960. In 1992 a new selection was published under the editorship of David Lockwood, Kilvert, the Victorian: A New Selection from Kilvert's Diaries (Seren Books, 1992). Out of print since 1970, the 3 volume indexed edition was reprinted in 2006 by O'Donoghue Books of Hay-on-Wye (http://www.kilverts-diary.com) William Charles Franklyn Plomer (he pronounced the surname as ploomer) (1903 - 1973) was a South African author, known as a novelist, poet and literary editor. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The Cornish Diary: Journal No.4, 1870 - From July 19th to August 6th, Cornwall was published by Alison Hodge in 1989. The National Library of Wales, which holds one of the three surviving volumes, published The diary of Francis Kilvert: April-June 1870 in 1982. Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow) is a county in South West England on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. ... Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow) is a county in South West England on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. ... The National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru in Welsh) is a legal deposit library in Aberystwyth, Wales. ...

Kilvert adapted to film

A John Betjeman BBC television documentary on Kilvert, called Vicar of this Parish, was shown in 1976 . This led to Kilvert's Diary being dramatised (270 minutes or 390 minutes—sources differ) on British television between 1977 and 1978, with Timothy Davies in the title role. The programmes are no longer available, and may have been lost. Sir John Betjeman CBE (28 August 1906–19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Whos Who as a poet and hack. He was born to a middle-class family in Edwardian London. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of £4 billion. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

Kilvert's life was the loose basis for Mary Webb's novel Gone to Earth; a curate in the Welsh Marches falls in love at first sight with a fey half-gypsy girl. Webb's novel was filmed by Powell & Pressburger on location in the Welsh Marches as Gone to Earth (1950 in re-cut form, fully restored by the National Film Archive in 1985). Mary Webb (March 25, 1881 - October 8, 1927), was an English romantic novelist of the early 20th century, whose novels are set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside which she knew and loved well. ... Powell and Pressburger were a British-based film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• David Lockwood. Francis Kilvert. (Seren Books, 1992)
• John Toman. Kilvert: The Homeless Heart. (Logaston Press, 1992).
• Frederick Grice. Francis Kilvert and His World. (Caliban Books, 1980).