How old is Frank in Outlander?
Frank Randall is an important character in the world of Outlander. How old is he at the start of the story, and how old is he when he dies?
There is a lot that we find out about various Outlander characters through stories other people tell. When it comes to Frank, we learn about him through Claire and Brianna. There aren’t any chapters where we get his point of view, although we do get letters that he’s written.
Claire’s first husband, it’s arguably Frank who helps to get Claire and Jamie together in the first place. Claire falls through the stones by accident, and she comes across Frank’s ancestor Black Jack Randall. Had Frank not been with Claire in Scotland on a second honeymoon and spent time researching his ancestor, there’s a chance Claire wouldn’t have fallen through the stones at all.
That isn’t what this post is about though. Something that we do learn is that Frank is older than Claire, but just by how much? How old is Frank in the story?
Frank is about 10 years older than Claire in Outlander
We never actually get Frank’s date of birth in the books. It’s not clear exactly how old he is at any point in the story, but we do know that he is older than Claire. In fact, we’re told he’s about 12 years older than Claire.
Diana Gabaldon has since provided us with a timeline, and she puts Frank’s birth in the year of 1906. That makes sense. At some point in the book, Claire does say that Frank is about 15 years older than Jamie, and we know Claire and Jamie have a four-year age gap or so.
That would make Frank in his late 30s when they are in Scotland. In the original book, he would be 38–39. The UK version of the book has the year as 1946, which could make Frank 39–40 depending on the month of his birth. In the TV show, the characters are in October 1945, so Frank is 38–39 depending on the month of his birth.
There is a slight error in the books, though. Claire says that Frank was in his late-40s when Bree was three months old, but that wouldn’t be possible. He’d be in his early 40s. We know that Gabaldon makes the odd mistake, which her editors are supposed to catch. We also know that Claire is often an unreliable storyteller anyway, so the mistake could be a genuine Claire error.
Frank dies in 1966. That makes him around 59 or 60 depending on the month he was born. It was in January, so we could say 59.
Next. When do Claire and Frank marry in Outlander?. dark