Francis was born in 1974 and started singing as a Quirister at Winchester College. He was a music scholar at the same school before winning a Choral Scholarship to King's College, Cambridge where he studied with Roderick Earle and read for a music degree. He studied as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music with Stephen Roberts, and now has a freelance career as a baritone, whilst maintaining a position as a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey. He currently studies with Susan McCulloch.

Francis has worked as a soloist with conductors such as Andrew Litton,Trevor Pinnock, Richard Hickox and Yves Abel, and international solo work has taken him to Australia, Poland and the USA. He has taken part in masterclasses with Wolfgang Holzmaier, Sarah Walker, Philip Langridge and Catherine Wyn-Rogers.

In 2007 he sang in a production of Purcell 'Dido and Aeneas' with The AOE, directed by Tim Carroll and Stephen Devine. Operatic perfomances in 2006 included Britten 'Death in Venice' for Hickox in the QEH (Priest in St. Mark's, Gondolier) and Purcell 'Dido and Aeneas' for Pinnock in Halle. He has also performed Gounod 'Faust' (Mephistopheles). Francis has sung with the ROH chorus in performances of Wagner 'Der fliegender Hollánder' and Verdi 'La battaglia di Legnano, and recently 'Alessandro nell'Indie' for Opera Rara at ENO.

Francis has performed the major works of Oratorio throughout the UK. Recent concerts include Haydn 'Creation' in King's College Chapel, Verdi 'Requiem' in St. Mary's, Nottingham, Párt 'Passio', Bach 'St. John Passion',  Mozart 'Coronation Mass' in Westminster Abbey with the ECO, Handel 'Dettinger Te Deum' in Westminster Hall with St. James's Players and Brahms 'Requiem' and Bach 'B minor Mass' both in St. John's, Smith Square. He has sung Vaughan Williams 'Fantasia on Christmas Carols' in Sydney Opera House and Krakow, Poland for the British Council.

In 2007 he has recorded the role of '4tre Vieillard' on a complete opera recording of Ambroise Thomas 'La Coeur de Célimène' with the Philharmonia Orchestra for Opera Rara conducted by Andrew Litton. Other solo recordings include Elgar 'Great is the Lord' and the Benedictus of Harvey 'Missa Brevis' both on Hyperion, Puccini 'Madame Butterfly' (the Official Registrar) for Chandos conducted by Yves Abel, and Stainer 'Crucifixion' on A&M. He is one of the Evangelist Quartet on the recent release of Arvo Párt 'Passio' for Naxos which was the editor's choice in Gramophone magazine.

Francis has made regular broadcasts on Radio 3 including in June 2007 the baritone recitative from Bach cantata BWV 34 'O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der Liebe' from the Lufthansa Festival. He sang on the live television broadcasts of the funerals of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, and most recently, the baritone solo in Ireland's 'Greater Love' for the live broadcast of the service of commemoration for 150 years of the Victoria Cross.

He has worked extensively in the field of contemporary music with the groups Tonus Peregrinus and Exaudi, and in June 2007 recorded for Hyperion 'I am the good shepherd', specially written for him by the composer Antony Pitts as part of his 'I Am' song cycle. He is increasingly in demand as a recitalist, particularly as an interpreter of English Song and has sung Finzi, Butterworth, Schubert, Wolf, Purcell and Mussorgsky in Cambridge, Winchester and the Temple Church, London. In 2006 he gave recitals in the Tewkesbury Festival and at the Handel House Museum. In 2008 he will perform 'Winterreise' at the Benslow Music Halls.