Members
Francis Bacon was a supreme Renaissance Man so it is perhaps inevitable that during its existence of almost 140 years, the Society’s membership has attracted people from all walks of life including academics, actors, lawyers, writers, doctors, scientists, historians, philosophers and many others whose professional life has enabled them to shed light on Baconian issues.
Here are just some of our current members.
STAGE & SCREEN
SIR MARK RYLANCE
Sir Mark Rylance is an author and acclaimed actor of both stage and screen and the first Artist Director of Shakespeare’s Globe from 1996 until 2006. He trained at R.A.D.A and has been a professional actor since 1980 with many notable Shakespeare performances and is widely considered one of the greatest stage actors of his generation. He has also played many film roles and in 2016 received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies.
He is a staunch supporter and advocate of many environmental and social causes and Trustee of Intermission Youth Theatre Company. In 2017 he was knighted for his services to theatre.
In 2023 Sir Mark kindly joined the Society to commemorate Francis Bacon’s birthday at the Royal Airforce Club in Piccadilly, London. The very successful event was hosted by Sir Mark and fellow FBS member Gary Cordice and included readings and their own personal thoughts on how Francis Bacon had influenced and inspired them both personally and in their professional lives.
A Francis Bacon Society video of the event is available on our FBS YouTube
JONATHON FREEMAN
Jonathon Freeman is a UK-born Australian Actor, Director and Drama teacher. A qualified and accredited teacher from NSW, he has since taught across a number of curriculums internationally. He is trained in IB Drama and Theatre, with experience in Theatre and young people, amongst a variety of contexts, environments, and countries. He has continued working in performance, being trained as an actor at the Ensemble Studios in Sydney, graduating in 1999 and playing many parts including Parolles, Lysander and Iago across Europe and Japan.
In 2018 he graduated with a Masters in Theatre from the University of Amsterdam. While there he started to research the Shakespeare Authorship Issue and became a committed Baconian. Jono went on to create a YouTube channel to continue developing as a practitioner and share findings with a diverse audience. In his own irrepressible style he has produced many brilliantly irreverent and iconoclastic videos on various aspects relating to Bacon and his authorship of the Shakespeare works. Last year he produced and performed a concept video for a new filmic project in development called Spearshaker about the concealed life of Francis Bacon.
Jono is a Trustee and Council Member of The Francis Bacon Society and as is befitting his background is keen to teach a new generation of young people about the extraordinary life and times of Francis Bacon.
YouTube Website Spearshaker Website
BRIONY RAWLE
Briony Rawle is a trained actor and voice artist who comes from St Albans, where Bacon lived for much of his life. As a classical actor she has a keen interest in the authorship question, and she has written an essay for the Society entitled, ‘How the Works of Francis Bacon Can Help the Modern Actor’. Since joining the Society she has worked to keep Bacon’s name and reputation alive in St Albans, and to encourage new membership of the Society. She trained as an actor partially at the Globe Theatre, and has performed in Shakespeare productions for the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, the Leicester Square Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Herts Advertiser Article Briony Rawle Website
MARK FINNAN
Mark Finnan is an Irish born Canadian author, actor, playwright and documentary scriptwriter. His work includes a best-selling book Oak Island Secrets which suggests that Francis Bacon may have been associated with the world famous mystery. He has spent many years delving into the fascinating world of the Elizabethan renaissance, both in relation to its esoteric and literary riches, most especially in the life and work of Francis Bacon and some of his associates, and in the plays of Shakespeare. His article on the Oak Island mystery, published in Vol. 1 No. 4 of Baconiana, can be found here. He was a member of the Corinthian Theatre’s production of the play I, Prince Tudor, Wrote Shakespeare in Williamsburg, Virginia and lectures on the Shakespeare authorship question and Francis Bacon and the New World.
Contact: here
PHILOSOPHY & ESOTERIC TRADITION
DR EDI BILIMORIA
Dr Edi Bilimoria was born in India and educated at the universities of London, Sussex and Oxford, and presents an unusual blend of experience in the fields of science, arts and philosophy. In science and engineering, Edi has worked as a Consultant to the petrochemical, oil and gas, aerospace, transport, and construction industries. He has been Project Manager and Head of Design for major innovative projects such as the Channel Tunnel, London Underground systems and offshore installations.
An ardent student of the perennial philosophy for some forty years, Edi has given courses and lectured extensively in the UK, and internationally in California, The Netherlands, India and Australia. He has organised and chaired several major conferences.
His written work has been published extensively in the fields of science, engineering and esoteric philosophy. His book The Snake and the Rope was awarded the Scientific and Medical Network’s prize in 2008. He worked as Education Manager from 2009-11 for The Theosophical Society in Australia developing study courses and study papers, researching, lecturing and organizing international conferences. Additionally, he supervised the Campbell Theosophical Research Library, the National Media Library, the National Members Lending Library, and the development of the website.
In 2023, “Unfolding Consciousness”, consisting of four volumes, was awarded the SMN’s Grand Prize.
He is also a great lover of classical music, a choral singer and a life-long, active and dedicated pianist.
Dr Bilimoria is a Trustee and Council Member of The Francis Bacon Society.
PETER DAWKINS
Educated at King Edward’s High School, Birmingham, and St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, Peter is the founder-principal of the Francis Bacon Research Trust, which specialises in research and education concerning Bacon, Shakespeare, the Rosicrucians, and other philosophers and artists of the European Renaissance.
He is an authority on Francis Bacon, Shakespeare and the Rosicrucians as well as a philosopher, historian, author, lecturer, teacher and leader of workshops, seminars and special events in many countries around the world.
He has given his Wisdom of Shakespeare lectures and seminars at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London, with the actor Sir Mark Rylance, the first Artistic Director at the Globe, and directed Mystery of Shakespeare Events in Italy and Sicily with both Sir Mark and Julia Cleave.
In 2008 Peter received an award for distinguished scholarship in Shakespeare studies from Concordia University, Portland, Oregon, USA.
He is the leading Baconian scholar of his generation and a voluminous author producing more than a dozen works related to Francis Bacon, Shakespeare and the esoteric tradition.
The Francis Bacon Research Trust
LAW
CHRISTINA G. WALDMAN
It was around 1980 when Christina first heard of the Shakespeare authorship question. She had been looking for a topic for an undergraduate thesis when she came across a book written by Mark Edwin Andrews in 1935 and rediscovered in 1964: Law versus Equity in The Merchant of Venice: A Study of Law, Rhetoric, and Authorship (Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1965). See here Although her history professor discouraged her from writing about Shakespeare authorship (“it had already been done”), she never forgot Andrews’ book. It had convinced that, whoever Shakespeare was, he had to have been a lawyer to have written the famous trial scene in The Merchant of Venice.
In 2015, at Lawrence Gerald’s invitation, she started writing a review of Law versus Equity for SirBacon.org. Just as law student Andrews’ research for his summer Shakespeare class grew into a full-length book, so did her book review. In 2018, Francis Bacon’s Hidden Hand in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Study of Law, Rhetoric, and Authorship was published by Algora Publishing (New York). Andrews’ book was not ignored; in fact, U. S. Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fiske Stone praised it in a 1937 letter to the author. Two (academic) reviewers, however, treated it condescendingly (see home page, Christina's Website for references). True, Andrews gave Francis Bacon a leading role in his “fanciful” rewrite of the famous trial scene, but he clearly professed himself to be a “Stratfordian.” And yet, Andrews seemed at a loss to explain exactly how, as he put it, "the mental seeds of Bacon fell upon fertile ground in the mind of the country boy from Stratford and bore fruit in the form of the trial scene of The Merchant of Venice." (Andrews, Law versus Equity, p. 45).
Just four years prior, the American Bar Association had published Shakespeare Cross-examination: A Compilation of Articles First Appearing in the American Bar Association Journal (Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1961). It included an article by a former Francis Bacon Society President, Martin Pares, “Francis Bacon and the Knights of the Helmet.”
Christina graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois (SIU; B.A., History Honors, 1982) and SIU School of Law (J.D., 1985). She was admitted to the New York Bar in 2000. She writes for publishers of legal reference books. She is a member of the Francis Bacon Society, Selden Society, Authors Guild, and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Her writing is featured at SirBacon.org, Here
SHAKESPEARE AUTHORSHIP
A PHOENIX
A Phoenix are two independent scholars researching the areas of Francis Bacon, the true authorship of the Shakespeare Works and the Rosicrucian-Freemasonry Brotherhood. They have been Baconians for over 30 years and have written and produced several books, 30 academic papers, 50 plus videos and a film script about the life and times of Francis Bacon entitled Spearshaker.
A Phoenix Books & Papers A Phoenix Videos Spearshaker Website
LAWRENCE GERALD
American Baconian Lawrence Gerald holds a BA degree in psychology from Sonoma State University in California. He is a professional videographer and photographer as well as an occasional freelance journalist in Northern California, who has been documenting his experiences on the authorship controversy around the USA and England for over 33 years via SirBacon.org. Launched in October 1997, it has grown into the largest Baconian website in the world. It is an indispensable resource for all Bacon-Shakespeare scholars and students, and boasts a whole library of important rare and otherwise difficult to obtain Baconian publications, countless academic paper and articles, and an enormous video library, encompassing more than 150 years of Baconian scholarship.
On 31st January 2022 the B’Hive Forum was born, a platform created by Rob Fowler in conjunction with Lawrence. It was a dearly needed forum for Baconians, by Baconians, to discuss the vast range of topics about and related to Francis Bacon. The development has proved a remarkable success with it becoming the most visited Baconian Forum in the world.
SirBacon.org Website B'Hive Forum
SUSAN ROBERTS
Longstanding Baconian Ambassador Down Under Susan Roberts has produced four videos in her series Is Bacon Shakespeare? Her well-received productions provide a well-researched and knowledgeable presentation of important evidence supporting and illustrating Bacon’s authorship of the Shakespeare works delivered in an accessible and engaging style which have attracted a total of 25,000 views and still rising.
In addition to her video productions Susan has for many years given classes at the U3A (The University of the Third Age), which is part of an international movement for the education of largely retired members of the local community, providing in-depth lectures on the Shakespeare plays elucidating the multi-layered complex meanings of the various texts. In the manner of an intrepid Baconian she also incorporates into her lectures aspects of the true authorship of the poems and plays opening the minds of some of her students who hitherto were believers in the Stratfordian myth.
CRYPTOGRAPHY & CIPHERS
PETER WELSFORD
Peter Welsford is Honorary President of the Francis Bacon Society and has been a Baconian for many years. He has a particular interest in ciphers, sacred numerics and their relation to cutting-edge physics and philosophy. He is also a past Treasurer of the Scientific & Medical Network
ROBIN BROWNE
Born in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom Robin Browne has enjoyed a long and successful career as a cinematographer working on some of the most noteworthy films of his generation: The Battle of Britain, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Born Free, and four James Bond films On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy who Loved Me, Moonraker and For your Eyes only. As seen, his association with the Bond films stretches back to the late 1960s and Robin has just recently attended the 30th anniversary of the Ian Fleming Foundation celebration in Los Angeles. In 1991 he moved to Michigan and currently resides in the USA. He is an honorary member of the British Film Institute.
In keeping with his deep interest in Baconian codes and ciphers he is currently in the process of completing a book on the life and work of the Baconian cryptographer Ewen MacDuff. Over the past two years Robin has been in regular contact with the Riverbank estate in Geneva, just outside of Chicago, the once vast utopian community founded by Colonel George Fabyan who supported Elizabeth Wells Gallup’s investigation into the presence of Bacon’s Biliteral Cipher in the First Folio and other Baconian works of the era.
The Riverbank Cipher Department with its intimate connection to Bacon and Shakespeare was the birthplace of US cryptology, a forerunner of the National Security Agency (NSA), the most secretive arm of US Intelligence, whose special assistant to its first director, was William F. Friedman.
In August 2023 Robin accompanied by his son was finally able to realise his long-held ambition to visit Riverbank where he learned more information about Colonel Fabyan and his estate which he hopes to share with us at some later date.
ROB FOWLER
Rob has a BA in "Interactive Multi-Media" which at the time incorporated Adobe Flash with an ActionScript focus which then was at the cutting edge of the new technology. The degree also covered PHP and ASP.net Programming, Web Design and Development, Web and Print Graphics Design, Advanced Typography, Online Marketing, Video Production, Digital Photography etc.
He was hired by NCR Corp as one of the youngest Field Service techs they had in the world at the time. The industry was shifting from old mechanical cash registers and banking equipment to electronic and he was the High School Gold Medal winner of the State V.I.C.A. (Vocational Industrial Club of America) TV and Radio Repair award in Virginia. In 1981 he set up his business and continued training with IBM, Texas Instruments, Sharp, TEC, Hewlett Packard, etc. and later web design and programming.
A self-confessed ‘numbers man’, Rob was born with an analytical and logical thinking mind and as a child could solve problems adults could not. From an early age, Treasure Hunting was also in his blood and after attending a gathering in California in late 1996 he noticed a striking portrait in the hallway which immediately caught his attention. He asked someone about the “Shakespeare” portrait, and they said “Oh, you need to ask Lawrence about that. It’s not Shakespeare; it’s Francis Bacon.” He was subsequently introduced to Lawrence Gerald, who provided him with a two-hour introduction on all things Francis Bacon, was handed a stack of Xeroxed pages from Alfred Dodd, Peter Dawkins, et al, and various articles from Baconiana many of them based on his curiosity about ciphers with a particular interest in ciphers within the Shake-speare Sonnets.
In 2022 SirBacon.org’s highly successful B’Hive Forum was born, a platform created by Rob Fowler in conjunction with Lawrence Gerald.