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Personal and military papers of William Edward Parsons, Major Lord Oxmantown, (from 1908 the fifth earl of Rosse) including commissions; illuminated addresses from the Heaton and Shipley tenants on his coming-of-age, 1894; and from the Birr Parish Vestry on his marriage, 1905; a fairly savage attack on him in The Midland Tribune at the time of his return from the Boer War in 1900 to join the newly formed Irish Regiment; letters from him to Toler R. Garvey during the Boer War and the first World War; a page recording the signatures of Lord Oxmantown and other Irish notabilities who attended a shoot at Ashford, Cong, Co. Mayo; during a visit by the Prince of Wales, 1905; and the fifth earl’s London address book, 1911.

Also includes copy of his birth certificate (1873); commissions and applications to Officers’ Reserve (1908); appeal to be allowed to appear before Medical Board in Dublin, not London (1916); detailed medical reports on the extent of his wound, by shell to the head, where a palm-sized piece missing, damage to his speech, comprehension and gait causing 80% disability with epileptic attacks; his death certificate plus further obituary of the fifth earl by Michael Pegum prepared for the Kildare St and University Club for publication in a book of memorials to those members of the Club who gave their lives in WWI and WWII (2010).

Includes letters to Toler R. Garvey (‘Rob’) from the front describing poisonous gas attacks in the trenches (26 April 1915 and 11 May 1915).

Letters, tradesmen’s accounts, inventories of plate, specifications, tender and other papers of the 4th and 5th Earls, all concerning the contents of Birr Castle or improvements and alterations to Birr Castle and demesne and
to houses and cottages owned by the estate – the installation of motors and turbines, plumbing, lighting, heating, redecorating, ‘hacking off’ plaster-work, etc. [Not in chronological order. For other inventories of plate, etc, see H/8 and T/83.]

Letters and papers of Lord Oxmantown, subsequently 5th Earl of Rosse, as a trustee of the marriage settlement of the 5th Earl of Malmesbury. [Not in chronological order.]

Patents appointing the 5th Earl Lieutenant and Custos rotulorum of King’s County in succession to his late father,
including two letters from [the Lord Lieutenant], Lord Aberdeen, on the subject (one of them making unsubtle reference to the necessity for the 5th Earl’s committing himself to political support of the government of the day), letters to the 5th Earl giving confidential opinions as to the suitability of various people for appointment as J.P.s, and a tradesman’s account for supplying a Lieutenant’s flag for Birr Castle. [Not in chronological order.]

Letters and papers of the 5th Earl in connection with the trust set up under the will of [Lady Rosse’s relation], the late Mrs A.A. Hope of The Deepdene, Surrey (‘the Hope Trust’) [see also N/8. Not in chronological order.]

Administrative correspondence relating to the prisoner of war relief scheme set up at Birr Castle under the patronage of Lady Rosse; postcards and letters of thanks from the prisoners of war from Irish regiments (but predominantly the Irish Guards) interned in Germany; and acknowledgment postcards of parcels received from same.

Contains lists of Irish Guards noting their name, regiment number, rank and where interned, including a separate listing of those from Birr; letters from Selfridge's & Co., Oxford St, London to Lois, Countess of Rosse, in relation to the contents of nine parcel types assembled for sending to the Irish Guards Prisoners of War; correspondence from Mary Britton, Rosfaraghan, Ferbane and Col. Douglas Proby, in relation to subscriptions collected in her village on behalf of Private B. Anderson (Reg No 3220), who is interned in Limburg; and correspondence between Major de Vesci, Regimental Adjutant, Irish Guards to Lady Rosse, mainly in relation to the movement of Irish Guards prisoners between POW camps in Germany so that parcels can be sent to them. Also includes ephemeral material such as newspaper cuttings relating to the Irish Guards, a packet of jam jar covers, and a copy of an illuminated address presented to Queen Mary from the Women of Ireland in July 1911, and distributed by Lady Aberdeen, the head of war relief in Ireland.

Letters from Irish prisoners-of-war in internment camps in Germany, mainly Limburg, to Lady Rosse either requesting assistance in the form of parcel aid or thanking her for parcels received. Prisoners are predominately from the Irish Guards but other regiments feature also.