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WALTER GREENWOOD
Teresa Agnes Redmond. His father died in 1847, as did two of his four younger brothers. He was fortunate to attend, from 1852 to 57, Jesuit boarding schools in Ireland and he then went to the Jesuit Novitiate at Beaumont Lodge, Windsor. It appears that he intended to train for the priesthood but towards the end of the 1850s he joined the army giving Francis as his surname. His brother Alfred suggested that his reason for this was a scandal which contributed to their maternal grandmother's death, but Alfred's reliability seems suspect. Whatever the reason, the tradition, as expressed in newspaper obituaries, is that Francis was in the Royal Artillery and came to China in 1859, saw service there, was then stationed in Hong Kong and after a time bought himself out of the army and settled down as a civilian.
The first record I have found of Francis in Hong Kong relates to his marriage in July 1864 to Anne Shirley, who was born in England in 1824. She was a Protestant and there were two ceremonies, one at St. John's Anglican Cathedral performed by the Rev. J.J. Irwin the colonial chaplain, and one in the sacristry of the Roman Catholic Church performed by Father Raimondi (later the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong) who detected no impediment save disparity of religion for which he gave a dispensation. I have found little reference to Anne Shirley. She died at Bournemouth in March 1890. The next record I have found of Francis is in the Government Gazette for 1865. He was included in the list of jurors, his occupation being given as clerk and his address as 2 Mosque Street. He does not appear in the jury list for 1886 and the reason may be that he had become a solicitor's clerk.
At some time Francis became articled to William Gaskell who was admitted to practise as an attorney and solicitor before the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1846, being seventh on the Roll. In 1867 Gaskell had his office at 2 Club Chambers, D'Aguilar Street. Francis said that Gaskell used to leave the office most mornings for the Hong Kong Club saying “you catch 'em and I'll skin 'em". Gaskell died in December 1868. It appears that Francis had not completed his articles and he transferred for a short time to Edmund Sharp who had been admitted in 1863 and who served as Crown Solicitor from 1871 to 1883. Francis was admitted, after examination, as a Proctor, Attorney and Solicitor in January 1869.