Frances Chesterton (née Blogg)

Notable Works

• How Far Is It To Bethlehem? (Song Lyrics)

About

Frances Chesterton was born Frances Alice Blogg in London on 28 June 1869, the eldest of seven children. Her mother Blanche taught Frances and her sisters to think independently, sending them to London’s first kindergarten, followed by a progressive Ladies School in Fitzroy Square. After their father’s death, Blanche moved the family to London’s first ‘garden suburb’ of Bedford Park, a bohemian neighbourhood where the family started their own debate club, called the IDK Debating Society. (When asked what the initials stood for, they would shrug and say, “I Don’t Know.”) Young Gilbert Chesterton and friends had started their own debate club and heard about the IDK and the three attractive sisters, and so it was that GK Chesterton went visiting and they became engaged.

From 1895 until 1901, Frances was secretary and administrator at the Parents’ National Educational Union, organising conferences, giving speeches and editing their publications. After marriage she was amanuensis and personal manager for her husband, and became a prolific author of songs and religious plays for children. Unable to have children, the Chestertons supported each other through periods of illness, depression and crises of faith. Frances wrote an annual Christmas poem. In 1917, near the end of the first world war, she wrote “How Far Is It to Bethlehem?” as a Christmas poem sent by Frances and husband GK Chesterton to all their friends. It was published in the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols.

Legacy

Her gift of Copyright to the RLF from her literary estate helps support future generations of writers.