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The Banagher Improvement Committee was involved in the development of public housing, drainage and sanitation, local industries, electricity supply and street lightning, employment schemes, local infrastructure and the revival of Banagher Great Fair.

The Committee had been established during World War I to support Belgian refugees with accommodation and financial assistance after the German invasion into Belgium.

Middleton Westenra Biddulph was born on 17 August 1849 at Rathrobin, Mountbolus, King’s County (Offaly). He was one of six children, and the eldest surviving son of Francis Marsh Biddulph (1802–1868) and Lucy Bickerstaff (d. 1896). She was born in Preston, Lancashire and they married in 1845. The Bickerstaff connection was to be an important one for the surviving sons of Francis Marsh Biddulph, and led to a substantial inheritance in the 1890s for Middleton W Biddulph, and his brother Assheton, who lived at Moneyguyneen, Kinnitty.
The Biddulph ancestors were from Staffordshire, and later Wexford, and had arrived in King’s County from as early as 1694 or 1660. Lt Col. Biddulph held about 1,000 acres, of which perhaps 600 to 700 acres he farmed with the balance leased to his long-standing Protestant tenants. His landholding was principally in the townlands of Rathrobin and those adjoining of Clonseer, Cormeen, Kilmore and Mullaghcrohy, all near Mountbolus, in the civil parish of Killoughy and the barony of Ballyboy.

Middleton Biddulph went to Foxcroft House boarding school in Portarlington, aged 11, thereafter to the Royal School in Banagher, and joined the army when he was eighteen, enlisting with the Northumberland Fusiliers (Fifth Regiment). Initially an ensign or cornet, he rose in the ranks quickly and was a Lieutenant by 1871, Captain in 1881 and Major from 1885. Before retirement in 1896 he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He spoke French, German and Hindustani and stations included: Hythe March (1872), St Helier’s, Chatham (1879) Portsmouth (1881), Agra (1880), Mullingar (1882), Newcastle (1886), Colchester (1887) and Aldershot (1891). It was while he was at Mullingar with the Ist Batt. Northumberland Fusiliers that he was appointed adjutant of the Ist Northumberland and ordered to proceed to Alnwick. It appears that he met his future wife, Vera Flower, following on from an introduction by her brother Stanley Smyth Flower (1871–1946), who was also an officer in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. They married in 1891. Vera Josephine Flower was a daughter of Sir William Flower, Director of the British Museum of Natural History, South Kensington, London. They did not have children.

When Biddulph retired from the army in the mid-1890s, he returned to Rathrobin and rebuilt the old house with the benefit of the Bickerstaff inheritance over the period 1898 to 1900. He employed Sir Thomas Drew as architect and William Beckett of Dublin as the builder. Once the new Rathrobin House was completed, Lt Col. Middleton Biddulph got on with his duties as a landlord and was a regular attender at the Petty Sessions, the Board of Guardians, and the County Infirmary, served as High Sheriff in 1901, and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the County in 1910. He was also on the board of the King’s County Joint Committee for Technical Instruction and the King’s County Farming Society. He and his wife left for England in June 1921 as the military campaign of the IRA in the locality intensified, and Rathrobin House was destroyed by Republican IRA forces in April 1923. While he seemed to have planned to return to Ireland after this, an attack on his land agent, Violet Magan, and his own declining health delayed plans to do so, and he died in Chelsea in May 1926.

Birr Business and Professional Women’s Club was formed in the County Arms Hotel, in November 1967. It was the first business and professional women’s club to be formed in Ireland outside of Dublin.

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.

Thomas Hilary Burbage was baptised on 4 March 1879 in Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary. He was the son of James Burbage and Isabella Dunne. His father was an ex-RIC Head Constable from County Longford but when he retired from the R.I.C. and settled in Portarlington and is recorded as a grocer in Main Street in 1894 and 1901. They remained there until their deaths inthe early 1920s/1930s respectively and are buried in the New Cemetery in Portarlington. Thomas received his early education in the Portarlington Christian Brothers
School and was educated in Carlow from 1896 to 1897, in Maynooth from 1897 to 1904 and was ordained in St. Patrick’s College, Carlow in 1904 for the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Father Burbage was devoted to duty, both religious and political. He was reported to be a noted speaker and writer, a charismatic and staunch republican, a prominent member of Sinn Féin and played an active role in politics. He did not confine his energy to the build up of the party but also expressed a genuine desire for the revival of the Irish language and was a noted Gaelic Leaguer in the county.

Father Burbage was a curate firstly in Carlow in his early life, and later lived in Geashill, County Ofaly, from September 1916 to June 1925. During one such speech at Philipstown (now Daingean), near Geashill, in August 1917, he made a strong attack on British cabinet ministers, comparing them to ‘Satan in furthering their own interests’ before going on the advise his listeners to ‘follow the rebels of Easter week even to death if you are true Irishmen’. Later in October, part of his speech at a meeting in Killoughy was also deleted from the also deleted from the press reports while the police again took note of his comments concerning their alleged strong arm tactics used on the occasion of the arrests of the county’s leading Sinn Féin activist, T.M. Russell, during March 1918, when Burbage announced that ‘it was clear to all the world that all tyranny did not cease when the Czar of Russia was driven from his throne’. These and similar sentiments by Fr Burbage earned him the respect of the country’s leading republicans and in November 1917, along with Fr Bergin, P.P., Philipstown, both were elected Vice President of the north King’s county Sinn Féin Executive.

While he was stationed in Geashill, Burbage became deeply associated with the republican movement in Offaly. During this period he claimed he found a British officer attempting to ‘plant a revolver in a bag upstairs in his house’. It was also alleged he was freed on by uniformed men from a military motor lorry, while he was returning from Tullamore to Geashill. At Curragh Hill, near the village of Geashill, he met three motor lorries containing armed soldiers. When the last one had passed him, at a range of thirty yards, Fr Burbage stated that a number of shots were freed at him. ‘I was much startled’ he told a reporter, ‘and I thought I was hit when I heard the bang’. He claimed that his residence was raided on several occasions and after one search in 1920, he was arrested. He was first taken to the Curragh and from there to Arbour Hill. In January 1920 Burbage was sent to Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Co. Down. Ill-treatment at the camp led to struggles and a tribunal headed by Fr Burbage later investigated the atrocities. It was reported that the presence of the priest at the camp proved to be a big consolation to the prisoners and he often administered Holy Communion to as many as 600 prisoners in a morning .On Easter Sunday 1922, ‘to mark the occasion of his release from Ballykinlar Internment Camp’, he was presented with an address from the bishop and priests of the diocese, paying tribute to the manner in which his ‘character and judgement contributed to make these (Republican) courts represented and obeyed’ and celebrating his work for the Irish language, the revival of the Irish industries and a rebirth of a spirit of self-reliance in the people. The people of his parish also presented him with ‘a beautiful two-seater Morris Cowley motorcar as a token of their esteem.

Fr. Burbage was appointed parish priest of Tinryland, near county Carlow in 1936. Five years later he was appointed to Mountmellick, and was Diocesan Consulter in Kildare and Leighlin, and was parish priest of Mountmellick for twenty-six years. He continued his work amongst the people over his years in Mountmellick and raised over one hundred thousand pounds to extend St. Joseph’s Church. Father Burbage also helped raised monies to build the new cinema, which opened in April 1951.When on 1 July 1954, he celebrated his golden jubilee Mass, the then President, Sean T. O’Ceallaigh, attended and the Taoiseach, Mr de Valera, was represented and sent a message of congratulations. Father Burbage died on 8 January 1966 and is buried in the Church grounds in Mountmellick. It was reported that President de Valera was amongst the huge attendance at the funeral.

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.

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.

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.

Captain Maxwell Fox was born in 1826, the son of Major Barry Fox and Sophy Fox of Longford. Fox was educated at Eton, and subsequently entered the Royal Navy. He served under Commodore Lambert on board the battleship, Serpent at the bombardment of Rangoon in the Burma War of 1853, for which he was awarded a gold medal. He retired with the rank of captain in 1864, a year after his father’s death, and returned to Ireland to manage his estates, and assumed residence at Annaghmore House.
Fox married Florence Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Andrew Buchanan, Bart. Following her death in 1882, he married secondly in 1886, Edith Edgeworth of Kilshrewly, eldest daughter of Rev. Essex Edgeworth. He served on the visiting committee of Tullamore gaol, and as an ex-officio guardian of the Tullamore Workhouse. In 1868 he assumed the office of High Sheriff. Maxwell Fox sold up his own farm in 1896, prior to his departure from Annaghmore, and died suddenly at Foxhall, County Longford on 14 September 1899.