Showing 6 results

Authority record
Person Offaly (King's)

Cox, Ambrose Clement Wolseley

  • Person
  • 1845-1913

Col. A.C. Wolseley Cox was the son of Ambrose Cox and Emily C. Wolseley. He was born in 1845 and inherited Clara House on the death of his father in 1863. He subsequently mortgaged the house and estate to fund his army career and his life in London. He married Louisa Helen Elizabeth Kirwan in 1870 and left a son, Reginald Garnett Wolseley Cox (1872-1904). Their Dublin residence at 41 Fitzwilliam Street is now known as the Fitzwilliam Townhouse. Col. Cox served as High Sherriff for King's County in 1873 but his income was insufficient to support his lifestyle and he was declared a bankrupt in 1888.

Fitz-Simon, Christopher Richard Manners Daniel O'Connell, Lt Col

  • Person
  • 1898-1984

Born in Glencullen House, Co Dublin on 30 May 1898, to Daniel O'Connell Fitz-Simon and his wife Alice Maud Bunbury MacFarlane, Christopher Fitz-Simon spent his early life at 'Moreen', in Sandyford, Co. Dublin. He was educated at Earlsfort House, Dublin and St. Edmund's, England. He completed his military training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, England.

His military career began when he was commissioned in December 1917 for the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment, Birr, Co Offaly, subsequently serving during World War 1, where he was wounded at Flanders in May 1918 and awarded the Military Cross. He returned to the Leinster depot at Birr until August 1920, and subsequently served on a peacekeeping mission to Silesia (Poland) in 1921. On the disbandment of the Leinsters in 1922, he joined the King's Own Royal Regiment in December of that year and saw subsequent service in India, Sudan, England, Egypt, and Palestine. He commanded the 2nd Battalion King's Own as temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, WW2 North Africa campaign against Italy in 1940/1941. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1942, and subsequently served in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland commanding the 1st battalion East Surrey Regiment. In 1942, he was hospitalised and invalided from the army in 1943.

In 1945, he was appointed land agent to the Tottenham estate at Mount Callan, Co. Clare and moved to a similar post in Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan, in 1948. He retired to Glencullen House, Co. Dublin in 1953 and died in June 1984.

Col. Fitz-Simon married Gladys Killen, in October 1931; she pre-deceased him. Their sons are Dr Christopher O'Connell Fitz-Simon b.1934, now in Dublin, and Nicholas O'Connell Fitz-Simon, b.1936, now in Victoria, Australia.

Farmer, Henry G.

  • Person
  • 1882-1965

Henry George Farmer was born in Birr Barracks on 17 January 1882 and was later baptised in the Garrison Church. He was the son of Sergeant Henry George Farmer and Mary Anne Farmer (nee Moore), Depot, Leinster Regiment.

Henry had three siblings, Martha Mary who was born in London and sadly a brother and sister who died in infancy, both of whom were interred in Birr Military Cemetery.

Henry was an accomplished musician at a young age. He joined the Royal Artillery, at Birr as a ‘boy soldier’ just a month and ten days after his 14 birthday on 27 February 1896. Upon joining he was recorded as being four foot and six and a half inches tall. He has brown eyes and light brown hair. Initially he played the violin and clarinet, but took private lessons on the horn.

Throughout his life Henry was also a prolific writer, his first published piece was a ‘Sketch of the Leinster Regiment’ which appeared in the King’s County Chronicle in 1901, in this he outlined the history and origins of this famous Irish regiment. Farmer’s next publication in 1904 was a far more substantial ‘Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band: its origin, history and progress.'

Henry left the Royal Artillery Band in November 1911 due to medical reasons. Soon afterwards he took up a job as a musical director in the Broadway Theatre, New Cross, London. Later in 1914 he was offered musical directorship of the Coliseum Theatre in Glasgow but soon transferred to the Empire Theatre also in Glasgow. He remained there for 33 years.

During this time he become an external student at the University of Glasgow, later becoming a postgraduate there and completing his master’s degree and PhD. Farmer’s doctorate thesis, which he completed in 1926 was ‘A musical history of the Arabs’. Other music interests of Henry were Irish and Scottish music, which saw a publication in 1947 ‘A history of music in Scotland’.

Henry Farmer married Amy Maud Jackson in 1904. He died at the age of 83 in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Pepper, Thomas Ryder

  • Person
  • c.1760-1828

Thomas Ryder Pepper married Anne Bloomfield, daughter of John Bloomfield and Anne Charlotte Waller. He lived at Loughton House which built in 1777 on lands owned by the Pepper family. The Pepper family lived at Loughton House until Thomas Pepper died as a result of a hunting accident. Thomas Pepper requested in his will that his brother-in-law, the 1st Lord Bloomfield, Benjamin Bloomfield, acquire Loughton House.

Bulfin, Eamonn

  • Person
  • 1892-1968

Eamonn Bulfin was born in Argentina to Irish parents. His father William Bulfin of Derrinlough, near Birr, County Offaly, had emigrated to Argentina in the 1880s and became the editor of The Southern Cross newspaper. On the family's return to Ireland, William Bulfin enrolled Eamonn in Pearse's school, St Enda's in Rathfarnham, and he later attended University College Dublin. Eamonn joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1913, and along with some fellow St Enda's students created home-made bombs in the school's basement in preparation for the Easter Rising.

Notable for raising the 'Irish Republic' flag over the GPO In the Easter Rising of 1916. Following the insurrection he was condemned to death, but was reprieved and deported to Buenos Aires after internment in Frongoch in Wales along with the other Irish soldiers of the Rising. In 1920 he was elected Chairperson of Offaly County Council in absentia and held the post when the decision was taken to rename King's County as Offaly. He returned in 1923 on the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and was active in local politics.

Trench, Henry

  • Person
  • 1807-1881

Henry Trench was the second son of William and Sarah Trench of Cangort Park, Shinrone, Co. Offaly. He married Georgina Mary Amelia Bloomfield on 22 October 1836 and had 8 children. By the 1870s Trench owned 4,707 acres in county Tipperary, 2,113 acres in county Offaly, 1,926 acres in county Limerick, 1,581 acres in county Galway, 704 acres in county Clare and 432 acres in county Roscommon.