Richard Gardiner Brewster

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The first I knew of Richard Gardiner Brewster was when I saw his name on his brother's grave.

I had gone to Kilbarrack graveyard to check out the grave of Gordon Brewster, the artist who had died in my mother's shop in 1946.

So from that point on, I was chasing up Gordon's brother as well as Gordon himself.

It was not long before I came across the website of Doug Vaugh who has a particular interest in the South Irish Horse Regiment in which Richard had enlisted. Doug sent me Richard's military records and they make very sad reading. You can see a summary of Richard's military career here

Then I found this photo of a plaque on the internet. It commemorated those parishioners from St. George's parish, Dublin, who died in WWI, and Richard's name was there.

So the next step was to check out the plaque. However, St. George's was no longer functioning as a church. It had become a nightclub, among other things, and my recollection from passing it on more recent occasions was that it had then become a commercial premises. So I resolved to make it my business to get in to have a look.

By the time I got round to that it had been vacated and was up for letting. To make a long story short, I contacted the letting agent who put me in touch with the owner, Eugene O'Connor. I explained to Eugene what I was at and he checked out the church. No sign of the above plaque, but what he did find was even more interesting.

A beautifully crafted stained glass window commemorating those parishioners who died in WWI. Richard's name was in one of the stained glass panels surrounding this magnificent resurrection window. Eugene sent me a photo, but I was anxious to also check it out for myself. I got the opportunity during Heritage Week when the [former] church was open and the Heritage Architect, James O'Connor, who had been involved in its magnificent restoration, was on site.

James told me that the original plaque I was looking for had not been in the church when Eugene became the owner. So that would have to be for another day.

However, on my way out I spotted a plaque to those parishioners who had been members of the Boys' Brigade and who had fallen in WWI.

And, sure enough, there was Richard's name and regiment.

Then back to the net for more searching, and up comes this plaque in the High School in Rathgar (Richard's name is second from bottom). Not a great picture, so I thought to try and take my own. I saw from the school's website that they had a full-time archivist, Alan Phelan, so I wrote to him. Then I discovered they were doing a project on WWI on another site so I wrote to them. That led me to Michelle Burrowes who is doing the project which is attempting to fill out the lives of the 900 or so pupils who enlisted, and more particularly the 80 or so who died.

Michelle already had a post up on Richard with information culled mainly from the school magazine "The Erasmian".

Alan had already revealed that both Richard and Theo attended High School and I dug up a few extra bits when I visited the archive. Meanwhile Michelle had unearthed a good quality photo of Richard in uniform (and one of Theo as well). I had some pictures of Richard from the family and she has now incorporated them into her page.

While I was there, Michelle showed me the alcove which houses their stained glass window, which is by the same artist as the one in St. George's, William McBride, though this one doesn't have individual names on it. And I could see why the photo of the plaque looked so poor. The plaques are at the side of the window and are awkwardly placed to photograph unless you come with your own lighting setup.

The next thing I came across on the web was a reference to another plaque in All Saints' Church, Phibsborough. So I contacted them and Rev. David Pierpoint suggested I come over one morning when there was a service. Which I did. The service was still in progress when I arrived and I had to keep pinching myself. This was high high church and I could have been at a Roman Catholic mass. I can at last understand how my mother and her friend on holiday in England all those years ago thought they were at mass until the celebrant started to "pray for the King, the head of our church".

Anyway, the plaque is a beautiful enamel picture, in stained glass style, with panels on either side with the names of all the parishioners who enlisted, and those who died shown in gold.

So both Richard and Theo figure on this one. The parish thing seems a bit inconsistent on the face of it but the Brewsters had lived at a number of addresses and would have had associations with a few parishes. This was the only plaque I found with Theo's name on it. He survived WWI.

Still searching for my first missing plaque, I learned that, when St. George's ceased to function as a church/parish, its function passed down the road to St. Thomas's in Cathal Brugha St. which is now St. Thomas and St. George. So I wondered if they might have inherited the plaque. I contacted Gillian Dean who invited me to come in and check it out, and I did find a plaque from St. George's. But this was the roll of honour for all who served in WWI from St. George's parish.

Richard's name figures on this, but no Theo.

Incidentally this church is relatively modern (1930). The original St. Thomas's was burned in the Civil War and rather than restore it the decision was made to demolish it and break Seán McDermott St. right through to O'Connell St. The connecting road is now Cathal Brugha St.

Richard is commemorated in two other non-church locations. His name is in the books of the fallen Irish which are kept in the Island Bridge Memorial Gardens (above) ...

... and at the Pozières Memorial in France near where he fell.

The picture of Richard above is from the High School archive to whom thanks for permission to reproduce it here.

Gordon Brewster

With thanks to the National Library of Ireland

With the approach of Bloomsday on Monday next (16/6/2014) I am reminded of Gordon Brewster, who died in my mother's shop on that day in 1946.

I have blogged on the excellent NLI blog about his wonderful cartoons and have set out on my webpage some of his family story based around his gravestone in Kilbarrack cemetery.

I hope to be doing a talk in the National Library in November, based mainly on an introduction to, and an analysis of, his cartoons between 1922 and 1932. This is the period covered by the collection recently acquired by the NLI. It is a very interesting period in the history of the nation, spanning a decade which saw the formation and consolidation of the new state. While the cartoons take a poke at the Irish politicians of the day, mainly those in government, they also deal extensively with British politics and in some cases beyond that. There are quite a few references to Gandhi, for example.

One of the things that distinguishes Brewster from many of the other cartoonists of his day is that he was an actual artist and he exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy. He also became art editor at Independent newspapers.

I had the good fortune to meet his daughter, Dolores, recently. She is a delightful lady, now in her eighties. She is not only full of fun but she has a pile of stories about her father, whom she adored.

The wider family is also of interest. Gordon's father was secretary and then MD of Independent Newspapers and his brother was in charge of the Cork office of that company.

His other brother Richard was killed on the Somme towards the end of WWI and I gather that neither Gordon nor his father ever got over the loss.

Richard Gardiner Brewster, as you will see at the link above, is commemorated on the family gravestone in Kilbarrack though his remains were never recovered from the battlefield. His name also figures on the Pozières Memorial near where he died. But the most dramatic memorial is in St. George's (former) church in Dublin's Hardwicke Place. It is on a panel in a stained glass window devoted to those who fell in WWI. The former church is currently up for letting.

With thanks to Eugene O'Connor

Polyester Poppies

As Poppy Day again approaches I find my blood rising at the sight of everyone on all of the UK TV channels wearing the poppy, some even from mid-October. This polyester patriotism is nauseating. Others have written better about it than I could.

It is enough to say that in my youth I would never wear a poppy.

In the first place it was British and on the wrong side of the fight for Irish freedom. I later realised how it had been hijacked by the Northern Ireland Unionists to be flaunted in the face of the Nationalists on Remembrance Day. Once, at a checkpoint on Lifford Bridge on the Border, I was faced with a British soldier, rifle in one hand and poppy can in the other. Perhaps he noticed the car registration, but he never approached me on that score.

Later, in following up my family history, I found that my uncle John had died on the Somme in 1916. So, in order to honour him and, in part, to reclaim the poppy from the Unionists, I took to wearing one for a few years. I have recounted this elsewhere.

Then the sheer sick political correctness and exploitation behind the push to wear the poppy got to me. Wearing it has become obligatory in the UK as a sign of patriotism, including support for more recent illegal invasions of other countries and the slaughtering of their civilians with weapons of unspeakable horror, which weapons are banned by international conventions signed up to by the invading states.

So, having done my bit for my uncle, I will no longer wear the poppy.

Instead, today, I will remember the deaths in WWI of two very different men.

Rifleman John P Dwyer
1893 - 1916

John Dwyer was born in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, in 1893. He seems to have had some Irish language or nationalist leanings, having won a book prize at the 1903 Mayo Feis. By 1914 he was working in the Civil Service in London and by 1916 he was serving with the Civil Service Rifles on the Somme. He died that year in the offensive on High Wood, a victim of the arrogance of the British High Command.

He still lies where he died. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and in the Mayo Remembrance Park in Castlebar.

Further details on my website

Lieutenant Richard Gardiner Brewster
1892 - 1918

Richard was born in D'Olier St., Dublin, in 1892. He was the son of William Theodore Brewster, then an accountant, but subsequently to become manager of the Irish Independent. Richard was renowned as a fine horseman and in 1912, after a period as a civil servant in the Department of Agriculture, he joined the South Irish Horse Regiment. He had two stints at the front in WWI and it was during the second of these that he died, in March 1918.

He still lies where he died. He is commemorated on the memorial in Pozières and on his family's gravestone in Kilbarrack Cemetery, Co. Dublin.

Further details on my website
Today these two men lie beneath French soil, separated by a just a few kilometres.

John Dwyer was my uncle.

And my connection with Richard Brewster?

Well, in 1946, Richard's brother, Gordon, died in my mother's shop in Howth, Co. Dublin. As a result, I was conscious of Gordon Brewster from an early age. You can read about that on the excellent blog of the National Library of Ireland. When I started rooting out my own family history in recent years I decided to check out Gordon's as well. And that is how I came across Richard.

How sad that these two young soldiers died in vain.

Today, let us at least honour their memory.