Maxwell in Gallipoli, November 1915

 

When Kitchener visited the lines at Gallipoli in November 1915, he was accompanied by a number of other senior officers with Australian General Birdwood guiding.

Kitchener pictured in the centre with the wolly moustache, just behind General Maxwell's left shoulder. Maxwell was in charge in Egypt at the time but would find himself moved on and available in London at the time of the Easter Rising.

Maxwell second left in this picture at the same spot in the line.  Presumably no snipers operating in the area.

Maxwell in the same uniform pictured in the grounds of Trinity College, Dublin for the review of the Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps members, St John Ambulance etc in May 1916

Maxwell can also be seen in this film clip linked to the above mentioned review :

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060005365

Richard Todd (Actor) and Andrew Todd MC (Doctor)

Richard Todd gets rolled out every D-Day for his part in the operation at Pegasus Bridge and subsequent acting in the film "The Longest Day" with very little information about his family and Irish roots.

The following is a cursory run through some of the immediate family details. 

Richard Todd

Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd was born in Dublin on the 11th June 1919.

A scanned image of his birth entry isn't available but a text version is. 

His mother is listed as Marvilla Todd, nee Agar-Daly; his father is listed as Captain Andrew Palethorpe Todd, serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)  with an address listed as "Camp, Phoenix Park".

The birth informant is listed as Emily Elizabeth Lundy with an address at 89 Lower Baggot Street. The address was a Private Nursing Home and Emily Lundy appears to have worked there.

Andrew Todd and Marvilla Agar-Daly married in Belfast on the 21st September 1915. He was listed as Andrew William Palethorpe Todd a T(emporary) Lieutenant in the RAMC, aged 23, with an address in Dublin. She is listed with no occupation, aged 23, with an address in Belfast.

Andrew Todd

Andrew William Palethorpe Todd was born in Dublin on the 6th July 1892. The address listed was 16 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin. His father Andrew Todd (1854- 1920) is listed as a Barrister; his mother is listed as Ellen nee Palethorpe.

1901 Census

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Fitzwilliam/Hatch_Street_Lower/1306720/

1911 Census

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Donnybrook/Simmonscourt/43616/

18 years old and a student of medicine. Listed with his mother and two servants.  The sister is not present.

His father is in Dungannon on the night of the census

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tyrone/Dungannon/Georges_Street__South_Side/868419/

The father died 16th June 1920. His death is registered as being in Ivanhoe Private Hospital (this was on Lansdowne Road, Dublin). The informant was Henry Kenny with an address of 36 Westland Row. 

Rugby

Prior to WW1, Andrew Todd played Rugby for Ireland, facing Wales once and France twice in the 1913-1914 season.

http://en.espn.co.uk/ireland/rugby/player/2394.html

Medical Studies

He appears to have studied medicine in Trinity College Dublin and to have graduated in 1915.

He was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Temporary Lieutentant on the 25th August 1915.

Easter Rising

Not too sure if Andrew Todd was in Dublin at the time of the Easter Rising but he appears to have signed an October 1916 dated document relating to one of the wounded members of the Irish Association of Volunteers Training Corps (IAVTC).

The Todd family lost property in The Metropole Hotel when it was burnt out during the Rising. A number of claims were made by the family to The Property Losses Committee.

World War 1

Todd was posted to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) and to have landed in the theatre of war in October 1915.

He was awarded his Military Cross (MC) for bravery while under fire with the award appearing in the London Gazette in October 1918 with his rank as Temporary Captain. No details of the unit he was with or the location of the action; still to find when he was promoted to Temporary Captain.

In May 1919, he relinquished the rank of Acting Major and became a Temporary Captain having been noted as a Temporary Major from February 1918 (but not for the purposes of pay).

World War 2

Andrew Todd was a Major in the RAMC when he died in March 1942 at the age of just 49.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2929214/andrew-william-palethorpe-todd/

His obituary fills in some of the details of his life between WW1 and WW2.

Dublin Cricketers 1905

A familiar postcard came up on the-salesroom auction site a short while ago titled:

‘AUSTRALIANS V DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ELEVEN (PAST AND PRESENT), JUNE 1905’. MONO POSTALLY UNUSED’

 

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/knights-sporting-auctions/catalogue-id-srkn10044/lot-bf726dff-e882-4907-9a9c-b0430138b3eb

 

I thought my bid of £20 was way too much. Hard to believe that the winning bid was £80 for a postcard.

 

The character I recognised immediately by sight was F H Browning (President of the Irish Rugby Football Union and commander of the IRFU Volunteer Training Corps when shot on the first day of the Easter Rising).

 

The second character recognised by initial/surname was R M Gwynn who I had researched a good few years ago re his role in helping set up the Irish Citizen Army following the Lockout of 1913.

 

The offices of the photographer and the printer both suffered damage during the Easter Rising.

 

The other names were not familiar so a bit of cursory research was warranted to see who the above two were mixing with.

 

P A Meldon

Philip Albert Meldon

Born 18^th December 1874, Dublin

Died 8^th April 1942, London

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Meldon

Meldon appears to have been in the British Army at the time of the photo, having served during the 2^nd Anglo Boer War.

In the 1911 census, he is recorded as a visitor to Colonel Duncan Carter, Royal Artillery, in Sunningdale, Berkshire.

Landed in France in November 1914 with the Royal Field Artillery. Served through WW1 and awarded a DSO.

 

H H Corley

Henry Hagarty Corley

Born 20^th November 1878 at 30 Lower Baggot street, Dublin.

Died 30th January 1936 in London, England

His father, Anthony Hagarty Corley, appears to have been a surgeon. His mother was Eleanor nee Purdon

Corley’s brother Anthony was killed in Gallipoli serving with the Australian forces on the 17^th September 1915.

https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/zc77ss20m

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/606287/anthony-purden-hegarty-corley/

 

E Ensor

Ernest Ensor

Born 17^th December 1870 in Cheltenham, England.

Died 13^th August 1929 in Cork, Ireland

Listed in Tipperary as a Professor in the 1901 census for Ireland

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tipperary/Tipperary_Town/Collegeland/1719898/

Listed as Erson in the 1911 census in Cork in the 1911 census of Ireland, a School Inspector

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Cork_No__6_Urban/Morrisons_Quay/394190/

 

A L Leeper

Arthur Lindsay Leeper

Born 19^th May 1883, Dublin.

Died 16^th February 1942, Huddersfield, England

Served with the YMCA during WW1 initially and then as a Chaplain in the British Army.

Settled in Huddersfield and wrote “A History of Huddersfield Parish Church”

 

J T Gwynn

John Tudor Gwynn

Born 13^th November 1881 in Ramelton, Co Donegal, Ireland

Died 17^th May 1956 in Bangor, Co Down, Ireland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tudor_Gwynn

Worked in the Indian Civil Service, as a journalist and then as the headmaster of a school in Dublin.

 

S D Lambert

Septimus Drummond Lambert

Born 3^rd August 1876 in Dublin, Ireland

Died 21^st April 1959 in Dublin, Ireland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sep_Lambert

He is listed in the 1901 census of Ireland as a Law Student and living with his parents etc

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Rathmines/Rathmines_Road/1297507/

In the 1911 census he is in Rathmines with his wife and family and listed as a solicitor

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Rathmines___Rathgar_West/Rathgar_Road/54483/

During King Edward VII’s visit to Dublin in 1903, Lambert’s father was called upon to do a post mortem on the King’s dog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Drummond_Lambert

 

C R Faussett

Charles Reginald Fausset

Born 6^th January 1880 in Waterford, Ireland

Died 3^rd May 1915 in Belgium

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fausset-71

listed as Reginald in the 1901 census of Ireland, living in Dublin with the family

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Donnybrook/Simmonscourt/1284391/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1612076/charles-reginald-fausset/

 

Rev T A Harvey

Thomas Arnold Harvey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Harvey

Born 17^th April 1878, Dublin

Died 25^th December 1966, Dublin. Buried in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Reputed to have caught and bowled W G Grace for a duck.

He is listed as a student in Trinity College, Dublin in the 1901 census (R M Gwynn also listed)

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Trinity/Trinity_College/1312073/

He was still in Dublin in 1906 as the Captain of the 10^th Company of the Boy’s Brigade, while curate at St Stephen’s in Mount Street, Dublin (aka The Pepper Canister)

He appears to have been in Sligo in 1908 based on a letter from Jack Butler Yeats

https://www.morganodriscoll.com/art/jack-butler-yeats-illustrated-letter-from-jack-butler-yeats-to-thomas-arnold-harvey-10th-october-c1908/41578

He is in Sligo for the 1911 census of Ireland

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Sligo/Lissadill_East/Ballinfull/753518/

A photograph of him in his role as Anglican Bishop of Cashel and Waterford is in the National Portrait Gallery collection

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw220473/Thomas-Arnold-Harvey

Harvey’s brother Frederick appears to have been a sportsman and won a Victoria Cross while serving with the Canadians in WW1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Maurice_Watson_Harvey

By coincidence, I was at a showing of Ashley Morrison's documentary "Mark Our Place" re the 3 Rugby VCs at Wootton Bassett Rugby Club earlier this year and did not make the connection until reviewing the Wikipedia page.

 

J E Lynch

Joseph Edward Lynch

Born 26^th April 1880 in Monkstown

Died 25^th September 1915 in France

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lynch_(cricketer)

http://www.hellfirecorner.co.uk/conor2.htm

 Killed while serving as a Captain in the 10^th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/734560/joseph-edward-lynch/

(John) Gordon Lewis - this “adventurous cameraman”

 

Facing representatives of the Irish film industry in the Odeon room of Dublin’s Metropole cinema in October 1950 were a number of Irish politicians and Dublin born impresario Louis Elliman.  

 

Gathered together to acknowledge the retirement and contribution of Antrim born (John) Gordon Lewis, Elliman described Lewis as a gentleman, cameraman, film renter and as “a chapter of modern Irish history” who he first encountered while Lewis was scrambling around the rubble of the 1916 Easter Rising capturing the aftermath on film. The Metropole itself had been reduced to rubble during the Rising (which would lead to damage claims from the family of Dublin born actor Richard Palethorpe Todd).

 

Lewis’s chapter closed on 14th April 1954. Death notices appeared the following day to announce his passing, confirming his address in Clontarf, and his time with Pathe Pictures Ltd.  The Belfast Telegraph later acknowledged the passing of “an Ulsterman” and their former employee.

 

Little information subsequently surfaced about Gordon Lewis until an RTE documentary in 1993 and then a few items re early Irish cinema that acknowledge Lewis’s role, though his film clips did underpin the monumental 1950's works Mise Eire and Saoirse. 

The Irish Film Institute (IFI) recently completed a great project -  The Irish Independence Film Collection - to bring many Irish films clips back to Ireland from the UK, to give them a “digital clean”, and to add an Irish context. I don’t think (John) Gordon Lewis gets a mention sadly.

Many people interested in Irish history will be very familiar with the film clips Lewis created that now sit on the IFI website, on Pathe’s website and in the Irish Air Corps DVD "On Golden Wings" even if they do not know his name or background. 

 

A forthcoming trip to Dublin will involve an attempt to delve into archives where Lewis's name does linger :

The road to and from the Easter Rising generates many links to actors and film stars (Gregory Peck, Richard Todd, Hedy Lamarr/John Loder, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, Sara Allgood, Maire Quinn/Dudley Digges) - I'm a committed fanboy for the "adventurous cameraman" as Lewis was described in a 1931 issue of Kinematograph Weekly and would love to see his name getting a wider mention.