Letter from Colonel G.A. French to Mayor Nicholas Byrne, 18 May 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from Colonel G.A. French to Mayor Nicholas Byrne, 18 May 1916

1 WCA/P190/2/1 XIII To His Worship,
Alderman Nicholas Byrne,
J.P.,
Town Hall,
Wexford. Dear Mr. Mayor, In my capacity as Officer Commanding the Troops in
County Wexford, I wish to convey to you and to the citizens
of Wexford my thanks for the quiet and dignified way the
recent lamentable Sinn Fein movement was met in the town-
ship and neighborhood thereof. From the first it was very
evident that the Sinn Fein movement had but few sympathisers
in the town and that the inhabitants were practically
unanimous in upholding the constituted authority for main-
taining law and order. Whilst congratulating Wexford as a whole I wish es-
specially to thank those citizens who at once volunteered
their services for safeguarding the town and other employ-
meant in the public interest, and especially wish to convey
my thanks to the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and
men of the National Volunteers; the citizens who were
sworn in as special constables ; and those gentlemen who
so kindly placed themselves and their motor cars at the
disposal of the Military and Royal Irish Constabulary.
I would also like to convey my thanks to Alderman George
Hadden, J.P., for his general assistance and more especially
for his unselfish action and forethought in having
voluntarily placed his own house at the disposal of the
Military for hospital purposes in the event of hospital
being necessary a contingency which we must all thank
Divine Providence did not arise. I may add that form the first I had confidence
in the sound common-sense of the inhabitants of Wexford
and that they would not be led into taking any active
part or abetting the mad Sinn Fein movement, a confidence
which I am glad to say was amply fulfilled. 2 WCA/P190/2/2 XIII 2 It is gratifying to note that far from a disturbance
of any kind having occurred in the town of Wexford and
its vicinity, the lovers of peace and good order are now
welded more closely together and more read to act in
unison to uphold the common good. Your very truly,
Colonel,
Commanding Troops, Co. Wexford. Wexford.
May 18, 1916

In this letter, Colonel George Arthur French, Commanding Officer of the British Army in Wexford, is writing to Mayor Nicholas Byrne to thank the Wexford citizens for their commitment to 'peace, law and order' during the Rebellion. Nicholas Byrne was a Mayor of Wexford in 1916 and 1917. Sir George Arthur French (1841-1921) was born on 19th June 1841, Roscommon, Ireland. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1860. In 1871, at the request of the Canadian government, he was sent to Canada as a military inspector, eventually becoming head of the School of Gunnery at Kingston, Ontario. He was appointed to organize the North-West Mounted Police on its creation in 1873, and the next year he led the force on its famous march to the foothills of the Rockies. French resigned in 1876 and returned to duty in the British Army, eventually attaining the rank of major-general. The organizational skills developed in Canada were used to establish local defense forces in India and Australia. In September 1883 he was appointed Commandant of the Queensland Local Forces with the local rank of colonel, and arrived in the colony on January 4, 1884. Colonel French married Janet Clarke in 1862, daughter of the late Robert Long Innes, formerly of the 37th Regiment. Colonel French retired in 1891, and returned to England. When French retired in 1902 he received a knighthood and for the next 19 years much of his time was spent guarding the crown jewels in London, where he died on 28 July 1921.

Open image in new tab

How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__3043.html)