Background
Franklin was born April 1, 1892 in Columbus, Mississippi, United States. He was the son of Cornell Samuel and Mary Wycoff (Taylor) Franklin.
Franklin was born April 1, 1892 in Columbus, Mississippi, United States. He was the son of Cornell Samuel and Mary Wycoff (Taylor) Franklin.
He was educated at the Franklin Academy from which he graduated in 1909 and the University of Mississippi where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1913 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1914.
Franklin practiced law in Hawaii from 1914 to 1917. He then served as an assistant Attorney General of Hawaii from 1917 to 1918. In 1919, he was appointed First Judge of the First Judicial Circuit of Hawaii and served in that position until 1921 when he moved to Franklin arrived in on December 31, 1921 and commenced practice of law before the United States Court for China.
A claim by Chalaire against Franklin was heard in the United States Court for China for the agreed price of the sale of the firm.
In 1937 he was elected Chairman of the Council and served in that position for three years. After the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, the International Settlement was encircled by Japanese troops.
Franklin along with the Secretary General of the Council, Stirling Fessenden were involved with a number of negotiations with the Japanese to maintain the independence of the International Settlement. Franklin was interned by the Japanese during World World War World War II Early in the morning of November 5, 1942, he was arrested by officers of the Kempeitai and held in the Haiphong Road Camp in He was repatriated from in September, 1943 on the Japanese ship Teia Maru as part of the 1943 prisoner exchange.
He returned to America on board the Mississippi Gripsholm with other Americans after transferring in a neutral port.
He returned to after the war and resumed practice as a lawyer By this time Extraterritoriality had come to an end and the United States Court for China no longer existed.
Franklin stayed on after the Chinese Communist Revolution and was granted an exit visa in 1951. Franklin was a First Lieutenant of the United States Army Infantry from 1918 to 1919 during World War I in Hawaii.
He was one of the three organisers of the American Troop of the Volunteer Corps and served as a First Lieutenant of the Corps.
Franklin died in February 1959, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
After Chalaire returned to America, in the 1930s, he served as the senior member of the firm Fleming and Franklin (later Fleming, Franklin & Allman). In 1933, Franklin was elected a member of Municipal Council.