The Arctic explorer John Franklin was his great-uncle, and as a child he served as a page at Alfred, Lord Tennyson's wedding.
His younger brother Hardwicke became a Church of England clergyman and a founder of the National Trust.
[1] Rawnsley was educated at Christ Church and Corpus Christi Colleges at Oxford University, where he took honours in Classics.
After retiring, he moved to Guildford in Surrey, where he worked on helping the National Trust acquire properties.
[1] Rawnsley wrote several books, including Early Days at Uppingham under Edward Thring (1904), Introductions to the Poets (1912), Highways and Byways of Lincolnshire, (1914), and The Life, Diaries, and Correspondence of Jane Lady Franklin (1926).