RANSOME, Frank
As Francis Ransome, he was born at 46 Duke Street, Ipswich in 1857, but used the name of Frank, son of Robert James Ransome (27 June 1830-3 June 1891), ironfounder, and his wife Charlotte Louisa Taylor (27 September 1832-6 June 1911), daughter of William Taylor, shipbuilder of Woodbridge, who married at Ipswich on 3 May 1854. In 1871, Francis and brother William were at Framlingham College when their parents, 40-year-old Robert James, was an engineer employing 140 men and the founder of Ransomes of Ipswich, was living at [Old] Foundry Road, Ipswich with his 38-year-old wife Charlotte and their five younger daughters, Louisa 11, Edith 9, Helen 8, Jane 4 and Robert 1. Frank was educated at Framlingham College, Suffolk and followed in his father's footsteps as an engineer. He married in the City of London on 17 July 1883, Marion Deane (1860-26 April 1934) and in 1891, a 34-year-old engineer, living at Claydon, Ipswich with his 30-year-old wife Marian, born Derby and their 5-year-old son Frank Deane Ransome, born at Ipswich. A partner, with Tom Drew Bear and Edwin Hollis Perk, in the engineering firm of Drew Bear, Ransome & Perks of Princes Wharf, Commercial Road, Lambeth from which he withdrew on 22 November 1894 from when he worked on his own account, about which time he moved to 61 Granville Park, Lewisham where he was living in 1901, with the addition of two daughters 9 year old Enid, born Claydon and 6 year old Elizabeth born Staines. An amateur painter and as Frank Ransome of Claydon, near Ipswich, a member of Ipswich Art Club in 1891 but does not seem to have exhibited. Francis Ransome died at Blackheath, Windsor, Berkshire on 2 July 1902, aged 44, and buried in Ipswich Cemetery. His son Frank Deane Ransome, became a professional singer and another daughter Sybil Dorothea [later Johnson] became a costume model and in 1911 were living with their widowed mother at 20 Chatsworth Gardens, Acton.