BOILEAU, Sir Francis James (1877-1945)Francis Boileau (Football 1889)
Sir Francis James Boileau was the 5th Baronet of Tacolneston Hall, Norfolk, England. He inherited the title as first cousin and grandson after the 4th Baronet Sir Raymond Frederick Boileau, (1868-1942) who died childless.
The Boileau Baronetcy was originally granted in 1838 to John Peter Boileau (1794-1869), the first Baronet, an antiquary and archaeologist, Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff for Norfolk as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Society of Antiquaries.
The Boileau family is of French aristocratic origins. The first Baronet’s ancestors Charles Boileau, Baron of Castelnau and St Croix, fled to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
‘Frank’ Boileau, born on 6 November 1877, was the son of Edmund William Pollen Boileau (1831-1883) and Bridget Mary, nee Walsh (?-1912), of Newtown, Geelong and attended Geelong College from 21 April 1884 to 1889 where he was a keen football player in the 1st Football Team for three years from 1887 to 1889.
Pegasus in 1943 noted that he was a well known stock and station agent and a member of the Epsom and Mentone Turf Club Committees.
‘Frank’s father, Edmund Boileau, drowned in Corio Bay in 1883.
Sources: Pegasus January 1943 p 64; Pegasus June 1954 p 54.