F. Brinkley

Francis Brinkley (30 December 1841 – 12 October 1912) was an Anglo-Irish newspaper owner, editor and scholar who resided in Meiji period Japan for over 40 years, where he was the author of numerous books on Japanese culture, art and architecture and an English-Japanese Dictionary. He was the great-uncle of Cyril Connolly.

Early life

Frank Brinkley was born at Parsonstown House, County Meath in 1841. He was the thirteenth and youngest child of Richard Brinkley J.P., of Parsonstown and his wife Harriet Graves. John Brinkley, the last Bishop of Cloyne and the first Royal Astronomer of Ireland, was his paternal grandfather. Richard Graves, a Senior Fellow of Trinity College and the Dean of Ardagh, was his maternal grandfather. One of Brinkley's sisters, Jane (Brinkley) Vernon of Clontarf Castle, was the grandmother of Cyril Connolly. Another sister, Anna, became the Dowager Countess of Kingston after the death of her first husband, James King, 5th Earl of Kingston and was the last person to live at Mitchelstown Castle. Richard Francis Burton, a distinguished linguist who shared Brinkley's passion for foreign cultures, was related to him through the latter's maternal family.

Brinkley went to Royal School Dungannon before entering Trinity College, where he received the highest records in mathematics and classics. After graduating, he chose a military career and was subsequently accepted at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, becoming an artillery officer. In this capacity, his cousin, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell the 6th Governor of Hong Kong (1866–1872), invited him out to the east to serve as his Aide-de-camp and Adjutant.