F.C. Burnand

The comic writer and journalist Francis Cowley Burnand was born in England, the son of a London stockbroker. He studied at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1858. There he founded the Amateur Dramatic Club in 1855, its first dramatic club. He originally studied to become a priest, converting to Roman Catholicism, which angered his father, who withdrew all financial support. Burnand eventually decided that he had no vocation for the priesthood, and his father then supported his study of law. He practiced as an attorney for a short time and later managed a theatre, but his greater interest lay in writing for the stage. He became a prolific dramatist, writing nearly 200 comedies and burlesques.

Photographed by the Farren Brothers of Cambridge.