Guinness Lorries WW1 and Tan War

The first use of motor vehicles by Guinness lasted from 1899 to 1903. Motors then came back into use in 1909 with the purchase of a number of Straker Squires. 1 driver (a Mr Crouch) transferred to Guinness with the purchase of the lorrries. As at 27/1/1914, 7 Milnes Daimler drivers were working for Guinness (starting 8/11/1913). Henry Ledwidge transferred from the Engineering Dept at Guinness in June 1909 as the first Guinness driver on probation. Ledwidge, Foreman Driver, died in 1917 and there is a note re a patent of his re "Improvements in couplings for road vehicles"

From the Guinness archives :
On the 6th March 1915, Captain A E Beattie, Army Service Corps, inspected 2 Leyland cars and the Commer car and took them over on behalf of the War Office.

The 'cars' were :

Leyland 5 ton lorry. Chassis no 1069(or W69)/1352. Manufactured Nov 1913; purchased from Leyland Nov 1913 for £884-0-0. Guinnessdepreciation value £645-4-9; price offered by Captain Beattie £602

Leyland 4 ton lorry. Chassis no X373/1353. Manufactured Nov 1913; purchased from Leyland Nov 1913 for £809-0-0
Guinness depreciation value £590-11-2; price offered by Captain Beattie £560. Described as lorry, no sides.

Com(m)er 5 1/2 (6?) ton lorry. Chassis no KC519. Manufactured Oct 1913; purchased Oct 1913 from Messrs Thompson Motor Co, Dublin. for £792. Guinness depreciation value £578-0-2; price offered by Captain Beattie £560. Described as lorry, no sides.

3 lorries had earlier been taken from the Liverpool depot but no details available other than cars numbered 11, 12 and 18.

An inventory taken at the date, showed 27 cars in Dublin :

14 Straker Squires 4 ton cars
4 Milnes Daimler 4 ton cars
3 Milnes Daimler 5 ton cars
2 Milnes Daimler 6 ton cars
1 Leyland 4 ton car
1 Leyland 5 ton car
1 Steam Leyland 6 ton car
1 Commer 6 ton car

with a note that cars on order which may be commandeered in factory - 2 Foden Steam Cars expected in middle of April and 6 Foden Steam Cars expected sometime in July. A 9th May 1917 inventory of the steam wagons lists 1 Leyland steam wagon and 6 Foden Steam Wagons plus 11 Straker Squires and 13 Milnes Daimlers. The Straker Squires were offered to the military as the Guinness petrol allowance wasn't enough for the business (2244 gallons per month) and they didn't want to hand over the steam wagons.

There had been communications between the Army Service Corps and Guinness since the early days of the war. Guinness provided the list of their drivers and their sizes so that uniforms could be made and kept on hand should they need to be taken into the army. Arrangements were made in conjunction with Colonel Collard in Dec 1914/Jan 1915 re "providing motor lorries day or night in the event of a national emergency".

14 petrol lorries and 3 Foden steam wagons from Guinness were taken by the military on the first day of the Easter Rising (24th April 1916). All but 2 lorries were returned on the 15th May - the 2 kept behind with their drivers (Joseph Armstrong and Daniel Prior) were working for the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) unit stationed at Portobello Barracks. Total mileage of 3800 is recorded for the vehicles; 104 gallons of petrol and 65 bags of coal were handed to the military. 33 Guinness drivers received a letter from General Maxwell and a £15 bonus each from Guinness. Armstrong and Prior also received a note of thanks from Major Balch, RAMC. 

A note from the Wednesday of the Rising, states that Major Deasy rang on that day (26th April 1916) enquiring about what would be the terms under which motor cars could be converted into armoured cars. Consent was given by A E Guinness on the condition that the cars were returned in a fit state and this was telephoned to Major Deasy in the afternoon. 

Some of the Straker Squire and Milnes Daimler lorries were commandered by 615 MT Company ASC from 17th April 1918 to 12th June 1918 and there are details of the wear and tear, missing items and repairs undertaken on their return to Guinness. 

There was an attempt to use Guinness lorries in the construction of Baldonnel aerodrome for the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 due to shortages of vehicles but this was resisted. The Irish Automobile Club had been looking to use a Guinness lorry from June 1915 as part of an effort to train/test motor drivers for the army.

Also in the Guinness archive is a pamphlet labelled "War Department Scheme for Motor Lorries" which appears to be pre WW1. Drawings are also stored. The Guinness lorries of 1914 didn't meet the specifications of the scheme.

So far, the only registrations I've found in any of the Guinness documents are RI 2585, RI 2588 and RI 2589 which were 3 of the lorries taken in April 1918.

Kingstown and the Easter Rising

The Royal Navy doesn't get too much of a mention when it comes to the Easter Rising.

I'd like to find out more about the setup, ships etc that were in Kingstown (especially HMY Helga) at the time of the Rising and so have been delving into a number of books and websites (most of which give more information about Queenstown as centre of operations for the Royal Navy).

"The Sea Hound" appears to have the most answers re what the Navy had in Kingstown.

Some of the books I've read in the hope of understanding the Easter Rising in general and trying to get some information on the role of the Royal Navy include

Horace Plunkett by Margaret Digby
Ireland in the New Century by Horace Plunkett
My Mystery Ships by Admiral Campbell
Liffey Ships and Shipbuilding by Pat Sweeney
Danger Zone (The Story of the Queenstown Command) by E Keble Chatterton
The Seahound by Daire Runicardi
Victory at Sea by Liam Nolan and John E Nolan
50 Things you Didn't Know About 1916 by Mick O'Farrell
The Impact of the 1916 Rising edited by Ruan O'Donnell
1916 Rebellion Handbook
Easter 1916 The Irish Rebellion by Charles Townsend
A Guide to Dublin in 1916 by Conor Kostick and Lorcan Collins
The Secret Court Martial Records of the Easter Rising by Brian Barton
Dublin 1916 The Siege of the GPO by Clair Wills
Easter Rising 1916 by Michael McNally
The Easter Rebellion by Max Caulfield
The Rising by Desmon Ryan
The Insurrection in Dublin by James Stephens

Still to read :

Pull Together by Admiral Lewis Bayly
Acacia Class Sloops

The shelling of the Volunteers in Galway by HMS Laburnum took place as they approached the DATI experimental farm. Ironically, the naval shelling in Dublin was undertaken by HMY Helga, a ship built for the DATI.

DATI = Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction

Irish Volunteers

For anyone interested in the development, arms, equipment and operation of the Irish Volunteers/Irish National Volunteers in the period 1913 to 1922, there is an active group on Facebook with lots of photos and discussions

http://www.facebook.com/groups/irishvolunteers/

The Irish Volunteers group website is at 

http://irishvolunteers.org/

(John) Gordon Lewis

One chap who keeps cropping up in my research is (John) Gordon Lewis, a press photographer/cameraman.

From Antrim, he enlisted in the British Army on the 14th September 1914, becoming number 18094, Private, Royal Irish Rifles. 101 days later, 23rd December 1914, he was discharged as not likely to make an efficient soldier.

He moved to Dublin and joined a film company run by Norman Whitten. Whitten had filmed the funeral of the victims of the Bachelor's Walk Massacre in 1914 and the funeral of Donovan O'Rossa in 1915. Lewis appears to have done well and later captured much on film whilst also appearing in shots himself :

Richard Mulcahy

Cathal Brugha

Lewis caught the death of Sean Treacy on camera, a work that is often confused with scenes from a fictional film from 1926 called Irish Destiny.

Whitten and Lewis worked on an early Irish film post war re The Days of St Patrick.

Whitten was to return to England while Lewis became a cameraman for British Pathe news.

The work of both these men can be seen in Mise Eire and Saoirse.

Escaping German Prisoners of War

4 German PoWs appear to have made an attempt to escape from Fron Goch while three German officers tried to escape from nearby Dyffren Aled in August 1915.

Fron Goch
Private Julius Reinhard Koch
Cpl Heinrich Brinkmann, aged 24
Private Hans Schoenherr, aged 21
Private Wilhelm Arenkens, aged 23

escaped from Fron Goch on the 13th April 1916 heading for Liverpool. They hoped to get on a neutral ship and make their way back to Germany.


Dyffren Aled

In August 1915 Hermann Tholens, Heinrich von Hennig and Hans Werner von Helldorff (some reports give a difference forename - Wollf-Dietrich - possibly his brother) had a scheme to meet with a U-Boat (believed to be U-38) just off the Welsh coast near Llandudno which nearly succeeded.

https://homefrontmuseum.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/the-great-orme-escape/

Tholens was later a senior member of the Nazi Party : 

https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/46348/Tholens-Hermann.htm

Hennig was a U-Boat commander

https://uboat.net/wwi/men/commanders/121.html

The Fron Goch Policeman

In researching the Germans and Irish prisoners at Fron Goch, I came across a photo of Police Constable Oliver Cromwell Davies on duty at Fron Goch.

https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/27626

An interesting photo as he appears to be armed and wearing an army ammunition bandolier but obviously the forenames struck a chord given the actions of Oliver Cromwell in Ireland.

A look up on Ancestry.co.uk shows him in the 1911 census as born approx 1892 in Blaenau Ffestiniog in Merionethshire, aged 19, a Police Constable lodging in Barmouth in Merionethshire.

He gave his address as Glyndwr, Frongoch, Bala when he enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 18th November 1915, number 68104. Age 23years and 5 months. His army service record shows that he was 6ft 1in tall. Sent to Dover for training. His first promotion came on the 30th May 1916 as acting Bombardier, then Bombardier (25/10/1916), Corporal (5/5/1917), acting Sgt (17/11/1917) and then Sgt (14/1/1918). He was discharged to the Class Z army reserve 13th February 1919.  He was in the UK until 29th July 1916 and then joined the BEF in France. travelling from Avonmouth to Boulogne to join 124 Siege Battery. Appears to have been wounded 10th August 1918 but no details as to what the wound was.

He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and the Meritorious Service Medal as well as the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

He appears to have returned to the Police after WW1 and appears as an Inspector in archives at the National Archives.

German PoWs at Fron Goch

Lyn Ebenezer's book lists 7 German PoWs as having died at Fron-Goch.

Hugo Paul Schroter is mentioned in the following webpage as having died in April 1915. The other soldier alluded to is likely to be Hubert Langenberg who died in Q1 1916 (1st March 1916)

http://www26.us.archive.org/stream/thebettergermany24810gut/24810-0.txt

The other German soldiers are :

Paul Vellener/Velleuer died Q3 1918. Born 13th December 1893, died 27th July 1918.
Rudolph Waschkowitz died Q4 1918. Born 26th July 1882, died 7th December 1918.
Alfred Schirmer died Q4 1918. Born 7th November 1895, died 28th November 1918.
Werner Ernst Foerster died Q4 1918. Born 19th August 1898, died 24th November 1918.
Adolph Stauch died Q3 1919. Born 18th November 1895, died 4th August 1919.

They are buried in adjacent graves at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Hugo Schroter is in Row 4, Block 12, grave 131, Langenberg in grave 132, Foerster in 133, Velleuer in 134, Schirmer in 135, Waschkowitz in 136 and Schirmer in 137.

From a thread on the Great War Forum :

March 4th, 1916, Hubert Langenburg was buried at the village church. The newspaper report states that the 23 year old's coffin was accompanied by 30 fellow prisoners under escort and buried "with full military honours" in the parish cemetery.


From Ancestry

Name:	Hugo Schröter
Birth Date:	12 Jun 1891
Birth Place:	Dachwich Bezirksamt Erfurt Sachsen(Saxony)
Combat Arm:	Infanterie
Type of Unit:	Infanterie-Regimenter
Unit:	4. bayer. Infanterie-Regiment
Volume:	702. Kriegstammrolle: 2. Kompanie, Bd. 1