Introduction

Biography

Francis was the son of Ro­bert and Ma­ry Ann Duck­worth.

When he was five years old, his fa­mi­ly moved to the vill­age of Stop­per Lane, near Rim­ing­ton.

He had to leave school at age 12 to help in the fa­mi­ly bu­si­ness.

At age 20, he moved to Burn­ley, Lan­ca­shire, to work for a to­bac­co­nist cou­sin. Six years lat­er, he re­turned to live at Colne, and in 1899 took a gro­ce­ry bu­si­ness in Mar­ket Street, Colne.

Duckworth had an ear­ly in­ter­est in mu­sic, but re­ceived on­ly three months of for­mal les­sons. Short­ly af­ter ar­riv­ing in Colne, he be­came de­pu­ty or­gan­ist (lat­er or­gan­ist) at the Al­bert Road Me­tho­dist Church, serv­ing un­til 1929.

He com­posed nu­mer­ous hymn tunes, 18 of them ap­pear­ing in the Rim­ing­ton Hym­nal. His tune Rim­ing­ton was sung by a mas­sive con­gre­ga­tion of Brit­ish troops on the Mount of Ol­ives af­ter the sur­ren­der of Je­ru­sa­lem dur­ing World War I.