The secret of Dr. Barry

In 1966, the Joannesburg Public Library published a bibliography by Margaret Bevan, entitled “Dr. James Barry (1795?-1865): Inspector-General of Military Hospitals: A Bibliography”, yet another title in the Chicksands Collection.

Dr. Barry graduated from the University of Edinburgh. After joining the army, he served in India, South Africa, Canada, the West Indies, Malta and practically every part of the British Empire. By 1857 Barry was Inspector General of Military Hospitals and responsible for many improvements in both medical and surgical care of soldiers, their families and the local population. However, his brilliant career masked an incredible secret: he was actually born Margaret Ann Bulkley, choosing to live as a man so she could attend university and become a surgeon. The Barry family, including her uncle James Barry (noted Irish artist) colluded in this secret life.

Scientific advances through military research

“Experiments with a New Polarizing Photo-Chronograph, applied to the measurement of the velocity of projectiles” by Dr. Albert Cushing Crehore and Dr. George Owen Squier (published in 1895) was, according to the stamps on the cover, presented with “Compliments of Geo. O. Squier” to the United States Embassy Military Attache in London on December 1 1895. The Intelligence Division of the War Office (Great Britain) stamped it as received December 9 1895.

Photo-Chronography was an experimental method of measuring speed by taking a series of photographs of a moving object.

Squier himself graduated from West Point in 1887 and received a PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1893. He was a great experimenter and inventor in the fields of radio and electricity and the military applications of new research. Squier was instrumental in establishing the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Signal Corps, which evolved into the U.S. Air Force. He was the first U.S. military officer to fly in a plane and in World War I was Chief Signal Officer, with the rank of Major-General.

However, Squier’s most far-reaching invention, in 1922, was something he referred to as Wired Radio… in 1934 he officially changed its name to MUZAK, the name still familiar to people in elevators, lobbies, on hold… a mixed blessing, at best.

Tom Barry's "With the IRA in The Fight For Freedom 1919 to the Truce..."

"...The Red Path of Glory."


 [From the Preface]

FOR MANY YEARS The Kerryman Ltd., through its newspapers and in book form, has been telling the story of the struggle, made by men and women of our time, which brought into being our modern Irish State. If these men and women did not achieve all that they aimed at they achieved more than any others generation had done in the centuries-old fight to throw off an alien yoke.

The book does not claim to be a comprehensive history of the Anglo-Irish conflict that lead to the partition. Rather, the book outlines in chronicle style a series of key actions against the British over the course of 1919-1921. Each action is detailed, based on personal accounts and written a key participant, and is usually accompanied by a hand-drawn sketch of the event.

At the beginning of the book is a brief history of the events from the Easter uprising of 1916 through to the truce.  Of greater interest is the second entry -  The Constitutional Basis of the National Struggle by General Sean MacEoin.  In detailing the constitutional-legal case for armed struggle, General MacEoin lists:

the personnel of the Headquarters, Brigade and Battalion staffs as entered on the Roll of the Director of the Organization from January 1919 onwards.  This Roll, which is still in my obsession, dates from January 1919 and is in the handwriting of Eamonn Price and Diarmuid O'Hegarty. It is to the best of my belief the only written record of its date and its authorship is a guarantee of its accuracy...

The list  is 8 pages long, organized by area/unit, and then names in order of precedence.

Tom Barry's life and career typifies the background of an Irish republican, entangled as were all Irish of the day, in the institutions of British rule. He was the son of a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer, the RIC being established in 1822 as the primary civilian police force for Ireland and therefore associated with a long history of holding the responsibility for repressing civil agitation against British rule. Like many Irish, he fought in British wars: he enlisted with the British army, apparently to see what war was about, and was wounded in a gas attack in Basra in WWI.  Barry was with the 3rd West Cork Brigade of the IRA during the conflict and was known as one of the IRA's best field commanders during the Irish War of Independence

This brief entry from the Princes Grace Irish Library gives a thumbnail sketch of Barry's life.

LIFE

1897-1980; b. West Cork; son of RIC officer; ed. National School; served in Mesopotamia [Iraq] in WWI; gassed in Basra; enrolled in business college; 3rd (West Cork) Brigade of IRA, 1919; commanded West Cork IRA unit, and later flying column; ambushes at Kilmichael and Crossbarry; opposed Treaty; arrested and imprisoned as a Republican, 1934; called for war against English, 1936; opposed IRA support for Republicans in Spanish Civil War; resigned from Army Council, 1937; quit IRA, 1940; sent ironic telegram to Gen. Perceval upon the surrender of Singapore, Perceval having previously acted as ‘easily the most viciously anti-Irish of all serving British officers’; unsuccessful candidate in Cork, 1946; latterly employed by Cork Harbour Commissioners; m. Leslie Price, a prominent member of Cumann na mBan and Irish Red Cross;issued Guerrilla Days in Ireland (1949) and The Reality of the Anglo-Irish War, 1919-21 (1974), a pamph. contesting Liam Deasy’s Towards Ireland Free. DIH

Bookplates

We're finding a lot of interesting bookplates and other inserts that give clues to how/when/where Chicksands items came to the War Office.  These books have come from all over, or been multiply owned before they ended up at Chicksands.

This one:

Charles Oman, A history of the war in the middle ages, 2nd ed rev & enl.  London: Methuen&Co. [1924]

may well have been picked up by a British defence staffer during the time of the British Mandate.  With the 'staff college' connexion it carries echoes of the military presence and role held by the British in Mandate Palestine in the inter-war period.

And this was originally from the author's own library, but seems to have come in to the collection through at minimum a second owner:

Henry Hallam Parr, Sir Major-General Sir Henry Hallam Parr; recollections and Correspondence..., London: T.F.Unwin, [1917]

Fancy covers

I really like the old-fashioned covers that were works of art in themselves - like these


UPDATE

The inside cover of European Military Adventurers of Hindustan has a great map (below) and an interesting dedication:

To Lestock Reid Esquire

(of the Bombay Civil Service)

This attempt to perpetuate

the memory

OF MANY BRAVE MEN

is inscribed with regard

and gratitude

Without doing research into the book, one would assume this is Lestock Robert Reid (1799-1878), Governor of Mumbai 1846-1847

Updated/jw

Further information about the artist of:

Military Dialogues. Lt.-Col. N. Newnham Davis. London: Sands & Co., 1898

The illustrations in this volume are by Richard Caton Woodville, R.I. and Louis Edwards.

Woodville (1856-1927), the son of a war artist, was brought up in St. Petersburg, lived in Paris then finally settled in London in 1875, where he began working for the Illustrated London News. Renowned for his attention to detail, as a war artist, he travelled to the Turkish war in 1878 and to the Egyptian war in 1882. He also worked in Albania and the Balkans.

Author, author!

A Short Account of the Russo-Japanese War was written by "Footslogger", a never-identified pseudonym, according to OCLC. However, the pencilled note on the title page of the Chicksands Collection copy indicates the author is actually Lt. Col. T. MacGregor Greer... but who's he??
There were actually several Thomas MacGregor Greers in Ireland, but one of the most likely candidates is the one who was born in 1869, died in 1941, was a Deputy Lieutenant in Ireland - and asked for his coffin to be carried to the church by his favourite tractor...

Tanks are Mighty Fine Things

 We just uncovered this example of corporate publishing from WWII.  It was put out by Chrysler to advertise their contribution to the war effort. The book contains wonderful examples of war effort prose, as well as illustrations ranging from (frankly hokey) improbable looking watercolours of tanks rampaging over palm trees through dense jungle on Pacific islands to good photographs of the Chrysler production line. And of course it provides a defence materiel and defence production narrative from the perspective of a significant supplier.

With our historical collections I'm always fascinated by the lingo, the vernacular, and the popular culture of the day: be it 1746, 1846 or 1946.  I've heard many descriptions of tanks in my life - including a few startled epithets of my own as I see 20 tons of rumbling steel and gun barrel lumber down the laneway in my rearview mirror when I'm at The Military Museums - but I've never heard of them described as "Mighty Fine Things".

Honesty in dedication, part 2

Dedication found in: Japan's military masters : the army in Japanese life by Hillis Lory.

"Dedicated to two distracting little daughters, Priscilla, four years old, and Nancy, age two, who were no help in writing this book."