Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson.

“He wooed the Muses on thy banks, fair Tees!

And oft, in distant Burmah, sigh’d once more
Bardlike to loiter in the pleasant fields
And flower-strewn footpaths of his native land:
And when he sang by Sitong’s eastern stream, 5
His songs breathed love for home, and Hurworth Rose
In his ‘mind’s eye,’ with all its quiet homes
And dear familiar faces, till he wept,
And felt himself a child again.”

 George Markham Tweddell
‘Peter Proletarius’
[Bards and Authors, p. 350]
92

This poem introduced the chapter on Frank Wilkinson in Tweddell's Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham 1872.

Extract from
" Frank Wilkinson was born at Hurworth on Tees, June 7th 1826, at which place his father was master of a National School for thirty two years.. At an early age, Frank entered the post-office at Darlington, as an assistant clerk, and afterwards, became an apprentice to Mr Robeert Dixon, a chemist and druggist in that town. On the death of his Edward Wilkinson, 1843, the rector and principle inhabitants of Hurworth wished his son to Frank to succeed him as school master of Hurworth, though only 17 years old ! And after receiving training for that purpose at Durham, he was appointed school master of Hurworth. He remained at until the early part of 1849, when he resigned the school and went to London ; but like Dick Whittington in the story books, he did not find the streets of the great metropolis paved with gold; and failing to meet with a situation to suit him there, he entered the service of the East India Company....returning in 1859 "

You can read more about him and some of his poetry in Tweddell's Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham 1872 - here
free download of the book  http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bards-and-authors-of-cleveland-and.html