Francis Hindes Groome

Who was Francis Hindes Groome?

Francis Hindes Groome, miscellaneous writer, son of Robert Hindes Groome Archdeacon of Suffolk, wrote for various encyclopaedias, etc. He was a student of the Romani people and their language, and published In Gypsy Tents, Gypsy Folk Tales, and an editor of Borrow's Lavengro. Other works were A Short Border History, Kriegspiel, a novel, and Two Suffolk Friends.

Groome was educated at Ipswich School, where his lifelong interest in Romanies was sparked, then at Oxford University after which he went to Göttingen. After leaving Göttingen he lived and travelled with Romanies until arriving in Edinburgh in 1876. He married a woman of Romani blood and settled in Edinburgh in 1876.

His first work there [in Edinburgh] was on the ‘Globe Encyclopædia,’ edited by Dr. John Ross. Even at that time he was very delicate and subject to long wearisome periods of illness. During his work on the ‘Globe’ he fell seriously ill in the middle of the letter S. Things were going very badly with him; but they would have gone much worse had it not been for the affection and generosity of his friend and colleague Prof. H. A. Webster, who, in order to get the work out in time, sat up night after night in Groome’s room, writing articles on Sterne, Voltaire, and other subjects.