Deserters and the Easter Rising

In the run up to the Easter Rising, the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) were busy with a number of absentees and deserters from the British Army, plus a few locals and "aliens". Possibly the strangest entry in the DMP record book in April 1916 is that of Mary O'Connor and her "Illegal possession of a teapot", while John O'Neill jumped the gun a bit with his threats to shoot 3 soldiers (Privates Massey, Burns and Beggs) of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles just before the Rising had begun.

Missing from this report but already in hand was the case of Herbert Pickering, a Fireman aboard "HMY Helga" operating out of Kingstown. Pickering had joined the Royal Navy whilst a deserter from the Royal Artillery, having enlisted in February 1914 under his real name Robert Aitken Herbert. He appears to have re-enlisted into the army as no 194563 after the matter was "resolved" (with no prison time) and would leave the army in 1919.

His name appears in the Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook amongst the small number of Royal Navy men listed as wounded.

Other members of the Helga crew appear to have spent time in Mountjoy Prison but none appear to have been deserters.

Templemore/Youghal to Sudan to Spandau Prison

An ebay purchase with Sudan and Royal Armoured Corps referenced in the description but no owners name given to the poor condition scrapbook with lots of loose photos and a few negatives.

Sadly nothing re the Sudan Defence Force armoured cars I hoped for.

The subsequent research stumbled through a Khartoum birth, Latymer Upper School, Ireland 1901/1911 census records, Framlingham College, Oxford University, Sudan Railway Police, to the first British Governor of Spandau prison.

To be digitized and some conservation folders sourced.

The clue to unlocking the name of the owner came via the hard to read data on the reverse of one of the photos.

It turned out the badly formed surname was Quinlan with the owner being Khartoum born Derek Hugh John Quinlan. DHJ appears to have gone to Latymer Upper School, Framlingham College, the Royal Armoured Car towards the end of WW2, and then to Oxford University, becoming a colonial District Officer in places like Tanganyika.

Pictured beside him in Royal Air Force Uniform is his father Hugh Quinlan. Born in Sheffield in 1895, Hugh was in Ireland for the 1901 and 1911 census

1901 Census - Templeomore

1911 Census - Youghal

Hugh's father Andrew Quinlan was a Quartermaster Sgt in the Royal Artillery in Templemore until 1907, after which he became a Barrack Sergeant/Warden living in Youghal. The father died in October 1916.

Hugh and his brother appear in an item in the Skibbereen and West Carberry Eagle in September 1910 as pupils at the Youghal Endowed Grammar School

having been registered with the South Abbey School in Youghal in 1907

Hugh served in the Rifle Brigade (no 2664) and Labour Corps (no 345951) in WW1 

and then went to the Sudan as a clerk/accountant, taking up roles in the Railway and the Prisons. 

Another visit to Durham University is needed to look at his files :

Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections: Sudan Archive : Hugh Quinlan

He left Sudan in 1940 and joined the Royal Air Force rising to the rank of Squadron Leader. His papers lodged with the Imperial War Museum have him in this rank :

Private Papers of Squadron Leader H Quinlan

Photograph albums belonging to Hugh sold earlier this year and reference his time as the first British Governor at Spandau Prison following WW2.

German Magazine re the Easter Rising

A new addition to the collection. A German magazine covering the Easter Rising in 1916. Removed the glass fronted picture frame; will digitize the pages and put the magazine in an acid free wallet. A minor tear that may need looking at.

The cover picture touches on previous work:

The man pictured is believed to be Dublin based photo-journalist T W Murphy

https://johnny-doyle.blogspot.com/2013/01/dublin-after-six-days-insurrection.html

The burnt out car (a French made De Dion-Bouton) in the picture belonged to the self styled O'Rahilly and was one of several cars recovered beside the General Post Office in Dublin after the Easter Rising.

https://johnny-doyle.blogspot.com/2017/12/judge-law-smith-and-his-chauffeur.html

The O'Rahilly's wife was contacted by the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) re the remains of the car.

https://letters1916.ie/item/141

Mythology has the remains of the car and other Easter Rising rubble being used in the creation of the stand at Croke Park Stadium now known as Hill 16, however the original work on the stand (a turf mound) was completed in 1915. It's not clear if Nancy O'Rahilly retrieved the car from the DMP.

Royal Collections Trust - Aud/Libau/Castro Easter 1916

Lurking in the UK Royal Collection are a number of Easter Rising related material :

Russian rifle butt retrieved from the Aud/Libau/Castro scuttled before the Easter Rising

Not digitised but listed is one of the German Imperial Navy flags carried on the Aud. The other flag was given to the Nazis in the 1930s by Admiral Lewis Bayly.

German made bayonet scabbard and frog retrieved from the Aud/Libau/Castro

Russian Mosin Nagant rifle retrieved from the Aud/Libau/Castro

Bayonet and Scabbard for the Russian Mosin Nagant rifle retrieved from the Aud/Libau/Castro

Na Fianna Eireann banner

1916 tri-colour from Limerick

The search mechanism for the Royal Collections Trust is not particularly good and I may not have found all the Easter Rising related items. If you find any more please leave a note in the comments.

John Joe O'Brien => Digital Repository of Ireland records

Browing the Digital Repository Ireland site looking for some information for another rabbit hole of research and decided to try a search for O'Brien and Galbally.

DRI O'Brien and Galbally search link

Surprisingly 3 hits in relation to 1928 bottling agreements for Jameson whiskey (don't mind if I do with a bit of TK Red), thought the DRI have put his middle name as James.

This would be the year that John Joe married Elizabeth Russell. John Joe worked for his father in the family grocery/public house in Galbally village square. He would later move to Dublin and own a pub near Kilmainham Gaol.

 A bit more of a settled existence after his time in the Irish Volunteers and the events at Knocklong.

New Zealand's Irish Revolution...?

 A couple of posts appeared on LinkedIn announcing the forthcoming publication by UCD Press of  "New Zealand's Irish Revolution".

I'm hard pressed to think of much NZ involvement in the struggle for/against Irish independence. Off the top of my head :

a. the 5 New Zealand servicemen who fought in Trinity College during the Easter Rising against the Irish Volunteers.

b. the transfer of HMS Laburnum to New Zealand after WW1. Laburnum having shelled Irish Volunteers during the Easter Rising.

After that, nothing comes to mind. I suspect I could find an NZ born member of the Black and Tans or the Auxiliaries but that is not an area of research I'm going to delve into yet. There are a few references to New Zealand on the Irish Military Archives online collections, where many appear to be men and women who moved to New Zealand after the creation of the Irish Free State but this will be worth delving into.

When "Dominion" journalists of the Imperial Press Commission visited Ireland in 1918, the 5 New Zealand members weren't photographed meeting with Sinn Fein (even the one who had worked on the shortlived Fenian newspaper The New Zealand Celt at the time of the "Fenian Riot"), whereas Australian MP and journalist Frank Anstey was photographed with members of Sinn Fein at the Shelbourne Hotel.

IWM (Q 28417) Dominion journalists aboard the Guinness light railway tour, Dublin 1918

IWM (Q 28418) Frank Anstey MP with SF members, Dublin 1918

IWM (Q 28419) Frank Anstey MP with SF members, Dublin 1918

IWM (Q 28426) NZ journalists with NZ soldiers, Dublin 1918

While I will have to get a copy of this book at some point in the future to see what perspectives are given, immediate thoughts are that this may be too niche and of little real value. 

More Norwegians and Germans were killed as a result of the Easter Rising than New Zealanders yet little research comes out re these aspects of the struggle. This new book feels like the content may be a bit of a stretch.

Guinness : 7th Bn Royal Dublin Fusiliers => MGC and Tanks Corps

In the Guinness Roll of Honour for World War One are a number of men who ended up in the Machine Gun Corps or Tanks Corps, with one in the Ordnance Corps as an armourer.

Of particular interest are Harold Bright and William Tait who both started out in D Company, 7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and both have mentions in "The Pals at Suvla Bay" by Henry Hanna.

William Tait

Born on the 21st April 1894, William Tait, a Chemists Assistant, enlisted into the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the 15th September 1914, number 14240. He had joined Guinness on the 2nd November 1908 aged 14, and is recorded as leaving on the 15th September 1914.

Promoted to Segeant on the 14th September 1915, working in the Machine Gun Section. At Gallipoli he appears to have been transferred from D company to B company and does not have a biography in the Pals book.

He transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on the 28th April 1917 and was assigned the new number 104627. There is a document listing him as being in  35 (Cadet) Company MGC  and a note about reporting to No 2 MGC Cadet Battalion on 2nd July 1917. He was discharged as a Sergeant on the 3rd November 1917 , becoming a 2nd Lieutenant in the Tanks Corps.

Tait married Dorothy Love in London in November 1917 and his occupation is listed as a Cadet Machine Gun Corps.

Tait was wounded on the 9th August 1918 at Gressaine Wood, Somme, part of the Battle of Amiens, while serving with 10th Battalion, Tank Corps.

He appears on the Landships site as being with A Company on the 8th August 1918 in tank J14/9264 (a Mark V tank) but is not listed by name in the actions on the 9th or 10th August 1918. Tank J21/9390 (a Mark V tank) on the 9th fits the later MC award description but appears to be in B Company with 2nd Lt Cyphus in command

While recovering from wounds, he was awarded the Military Cross, appearing in the London Gazette on 7th November 1918.

He was not fit to return to the frontline and was discharged from the Army on 30th June 1919 with the rank of Lieutenant.

His Medal Index Card gives his address in Bowden, Cheshire.

In the 1921 census for England, he is living in Cheshire and listed as an Employer at a foundry. He is listed as married to Dorothy Agnes Eileen Tait and living with them is his father in law, 68year old Robert Lindsay Love, a retired Lt Colonel of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Tait appears on Page 10 in the Brewhouse Department in the Guinness Employees Roll of Honour book.

His promotion to Lieutenant and his Military Cross are not recorded.

Harold Sidney Bright

Born in 1892, Harold Bright was 22years old when he enlisted into D Company, 7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the 14th September 1914. He was alloted number 14158. 

He has a small biography in the Pals book and is listed amongst the men in No 11 Section, 16 Platoon who survived Gallipoli and left Suvla on 29th September 1915.

He was promoted to temporary 2nd Lieutenant in Gallipoli on the 29th September 1915 and joined the 7th Bn Royal Munster Fusiliers in Mudros on the 5th October 1915. On the 11th May 1916 he transferred to the 30th Brigade (Company), Machine Gun Corps. Shortly afterwards, Bright was awarded the Military Cross which was gazetted on the 2nd June 1916 for action while serving with the Royal Munster Fusiliers. He would gain a Mentioned in Dispatches shortly after this award.

Wounded on the 2nd October 1916, he was admitted to hospital in Malta on the 22nd October 1916 with a Gun Shot Wound (GWS) to the jaw - compound fracture. Invalided to England on 31st October 1916. The subject of several medical boards, he was eventually granted 2 months leave choosing to stay at his parents house at St Thomas's Whitechurch, Rathfarnham, Dublin.

He reported to the Machine Gun Training Centre in Grantham on the 13th February 1917. Little information appears until his discharge on the 1st August 1920 with the rank of Lieutenant. The Guinness Archives give his address as 1 Lines Mess, Belton Park, Grantham.

Bright's medal etc were sold at auction in 2000.

In the Guinness Roll of Honour, Bright appears in the Accounts Department on page 7, where he is listed as a Captain with the Military Cross and 2 Mentioned in Dispatches.

Bright rejoined the Guinness Brewery on 17th August 1920. In the 1926 census, Bright is living at his parents house and is marked as working as a clerk at the Guinness Brewery.

Machine Gun Corps Database

Both Tait and Bright are to be found in the Sacker database put on the UK National Archives website by the Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association (VMGCRA).

Harold Bright

William Tait