Francis Hastings Doyle

Sir Francis Hastings Charles Doyle, 2nd Baronet (21 August 1810 – 8 June 1888)[1] was a British poet.

Among his friends was William Gladstone, at whose marriage he assisted as best man, but in later life their political opinions widely differed.

[citation needed] In 1834 he published Miscellaneous Verses, followed by Two Destinies (1844), Oedipus, King of Thebes (1849), and Return of the Guards (1866).

Doyle's best work is his ballads, which include The Red Thread of Honour, The Private of the Buffs, and The Loss of the Birkenhead.

In his longer poems his genuine poetical feeling was not equalled by his power of expression, and much of his poetry is commonplace.