Francis Webb is regarded as one of Australia's greatest poets.
Webb attended our school from 1937 - 39. He was unable to complete his education here (then called, Christrian Brothers' College, Chatswood) as our newly established school didn't provide the 'Leaving Certificate'. Francis completed his schooling at Christian Brothers' High School, Lewisham where he achieved Ist class Honours and 2nd in the State in English.
Both Dr Toby Davidson's interview & Robert Adamson's lecture transcript on this page, provide a great insight into Webb's life and his prodigious talent.
Webb, F. (2011). Collected poems. Crawley, W.A.: UWA Publishing. pp.13-14
David Musgrave (University of Newcastle) - poet and scholar, Mark Reid – poet, Professor Michael Griffith (ACU, Webb's biographer and lecturer on Spirituality in Webb’s poetry as part of Australian Literature course), Kate Middleton - poet and Melinda Smith - poet, winner of the 2014 Prime Minister's Award for Poetry and Toby Davidson, Professor of Australian Literature at Macquarie University and editor of Webb's Collected Poems.
along with Judith Crispin (poet), MC Toby Davidson (Macquarie University, poet and editor of Webb’s Collected Poems), Gareth Jenkins (poet), Associate Professor Michael Griffith (ACU - Academic and Webb's biographer), Richard Miller (Webb fan), the late Robert Adamson (RIP 2022, poet, academic & ex-Chair of Poetry, UTS) Oliver Millar (film-maker of Electric, a short film about Webb).
Francis and his pet parrot George at his Chatswood home.
The annual reading of Francis' poetry begun in 2012 with the publication of the Collected Works of Francis Webb by Professor Toby Davidson.
Every year the College has been proudly represented by a student reader in tribute to our celebrated alumni.
Francis Webb by
"For many of us, readers and poets alike, Frank Webb's verse has been the gold standard by which complex poetic language has been judged...a master of last lines, of last stanzas and final phrases." - Les Murray *** Francis Webb (1925-1973) grew up in North Sydney with his paternal grandparents, who encouraged his love of music, books, and the sea. In 1942, during his final year of secondary school, his writing first appeared in the Bulletin, which led to friendships with Douglas Stewart, Nan McDonald, Rosemary Dobson, and Norman Lindsay, who illustrated his debut collection A Drum for Ben Boyd. In 1943, Webb joined the Air Force, completing his training as a Wireless Air Gunner in Canada in late 1944. After a sea voyage from Canada to England in 1949, he suffered the first of a series of breakdowns which increasingly restricted his life, but not his prodigious poetic gifts. Despite being regarded as one of Australia's greatest poets, Francis Webb has been out of print for 20 years. Webb's final changes to several poems in 1969 were ignored by then editor Douglas Stewart, so this book is the first collected edition that is faithful to the poet's own wishes, which 'rewrites' the Webb legacy and several famous poems. The book is introduced by the Australian poetry researcher Toby Davidson, and it is accompanied by 100 pages of notes utilizing the latest scholarship and commentaries.
