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Friday, December 22, 2023

Francis John Fane Marmion Dymoke 1955-2023

 Francis Dymoke, who died 18 December, 2023, aged 68, was Lord of the Manor of Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire, where his family have been seated since the Norman Conquest in 1066, and he served as the Honourable the King's Champion. A chartered accountant, he served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1999.

The King's Champion is a role that has been been passed down Francis Dymoke's family since 1066 and involves bearing Royal Standard and walking in the coronation procession. He fulfilled the role in May at the Coronation of King Charles III.

Francis John Fane Marmion Dymoke was born 19 January, 1955, son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Lindley Marmion Dymoke (1926-2015), of Scrivelsby, and his wife the former Susan Cicely Fane (1932-2020), scion of the Earls of Westmorland.

He was twice married, firstly, in 1982 (divorced 2003), to Rosalie Mary Goldingham, daughter of Major Anthony Goldingham, of Uley, Gloucestershire, by whom he had three children, 2 sons and a daughter; and married 2ndly, 27 June, 2009, Gail M. Humphries. His elder son, Henry Francis Marmion Dymoke, who was born in 1984, succeeds as Lord of the Manor of Scrivelsby, and to the office of hereditary King's Champion.

The Honourable The King's (or Queen's) Champion is an honorary and hereditary office in the Royal Household. The champion's original role at the coronation of a British monarch was to challenge anyone who contested the new monarch's entitlement to the throne to trial by combat. Although this function was last enacted at the coronation of King George IV in 1821, the office continues to descend through the Dymoke family. The feudal holder of the Manor of Scrivelsby has, since the Norman Conquest in 1066, held the manor from the Crown by grand serjeanty of being the King's or Queen's Champion. Such person is also the Standard Bearer of England. 

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