This letter is from Robert Childers Barton (1881-1975), officer in charge of prisoners' effects, Richmond Barracks, to Mabel FitzGerald (née Washington McConnell) (1884-1958), wife of politician and intellectual Desmond FitzGerald (1888-1947). The subject of this letter is Desmond FitzGerald's overcoat. FitzGerald had a number of transfers between prisons in Ireland before he arrived in Dartmoor Prison. The confusion about the coat arose when the officer in Richmond Barracks found a coat with a label showing the name FitzGerald and forwarded it to Mrs. Fitzgerald. It transpires that this coat belonged to another prisoner and that Mr FitzGerald was already in possession of his overcoat in Dartmoor.R.C. Barton joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, acting as secretary to Colonel Maurice Moore (1854-1939). At the outbreak of the Great War, Barton accepted a commission in the British Army, serving in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In April 1916, he was dispatched to Dublin, where he could observe at first hand the treatment meted out to the rebels. Barton served for a period as officer in charge of prisoners effects at Richmond Barracks. He soon resigned his commission and joined the revolutionary movement. Mabel Fitzgerald was the wife of Irish Volunteer Desmond Fitzgerald. Mabel was a former governess in London. She later vigorously canvassed her former acquaintances in London's liberal circles for support for Francis Sheehy Skeffington during his hunger strike in 1915. Both Mabel and Desmond would serve in the GPO garrison during Easter Week.