Sue, this is intriguing.

Someone who's responsible enough to take on the job of museum curator in 1891 and doesn't die until 1940, must have been born in the 1850s or early 1860 ( I don't know how old he was when he died)

The IGI has only one Manx born Francis Kermode who fits, and just by coincidence, his family is discussed in a thread lower down the board. It starts. "Re: William Alfred Kermode"---Weds 4th Feb 2009

FRANCIS COWLEY KERMODE Pedigree
Male

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Event(s):
Birth:
Christening: 07 JUL 1861 Kirk German, Isle Of Man, England

Death:
Burial:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parents:
Father: THOMAS KERMODE Family
Mother: ELIZA COWLEY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Messages:
Extracted birth or christening record for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date.

*************************************
Unfortunately he was born just after the 61 census, and by 1871, he isn't in the household (Ancestry, 1871 IOM census, German, District 1a, page 17 )

There's no burial in Brian Lawson's index for a Francis Cowley Kermode between 1861 and 1871.

Is it possible that one or more of his older siblings (there was a huge spread of ages, Francis being the last born, I believe ) emigrated to Canada / USA, and took young Francis along with them ?

Incidentally, this Kermode family seems to have produced some high-flyers.

How old was Dr Francis Kermode when he died in 1940 ?

Jean C