Francis William Davenport

[1] Davenport read law at University College, Oxford.

However, he decided to have a career in music, studying under George Alexander Macfarren.

They had several children; son Robert, a writer and illustrator of children's stories and popular song lyricist, was father of the critic John Davenport[2][3] Whilst teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, he taught harmony and counterpoint to Alicia Adélaide Needham, the mother of Joseph Needham.

[4] Other pupils included Ethel Mary Boyce, Percy Buck, Arthur Hinton, Amy Elsie Horrocks, Chester Edward Ide, Colin McAlpin, Percy Hilder Miles and Ellen Riley Wright.

[5] His nephew, Christopher Wilson, was a composer, conductor and music director for the theatre.