Sir Frank Francis is perhaps best known for his service to the British Museum, where he was director and principal librarian, but he was also an important bibliographer and champion of the scholarly pursuit of knowledge. He was the editor of The Library, first jointly with R. B. McKerrow from 1934 until 1936, then sole editor until 1953. He was joint editor of the Journal of Documentation from 1947 to 1968. Throughout his career Francis continued to search for ways to improve the access for scholars to the materials needed to perform their work.

Frank Chalton Francis was born in Liverpool on 5 October 1901. He came from fairly humble origins, having attended the Liverpool Institute and Liverpool University, where he took a first in classics. He continued with his postgraduate studies in classics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from 1923 to 1925. He joined the British Museum in 1926, first as an assistant keeper in the Department of...