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MALABAR,
BALLSBRIDGE,
DUBLIN. 10thMay 1916 My dear Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington May I intrude on
your great sorrow to offer you my
profound and sincere sympathy
on your husband's death.
Nothing in the whole terrible
business of the last few weeks
has caused me so much regret
is the sad taking off of poor
Skeff as I always called him
though we could scarcely be
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described as intimate I always
looked on him as a friend
and regarded him as one of
the most rightful unselfish high
principled men it has been
my good fortune to know.
His standard was after too
high for most of us. What
ever his beliefs in such matters
may have been from my heart
I pray that he may rest in
peace. Yours most sympathetically William Dawson
Letter from William Dawson (1864-1950) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946) expressing
sympathy in regards to the death of Hanna's husband, Francis. Dawson also writes of
his respect and affection for Francis.
William Richard Dawson was appointed Inspector of Lunatics in Ireland in 1911. During
the Great War he served in the Royal Ambulance Medical Corps, gaining the rank of
lieutenant-colonel, as a specialist in ‘nerve disease’ or shell shock to the troops
in Ireland.
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, suffragette, nationalist, language teacher, was the founder
of the Irish Women’s Franchise League and a founding member of the Irish Women Workers’
Union. She was the widow of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington who was summarily executed
on 26 April 1916. She was active during the Rising, bringing food to the Volunteers
in the G.P.O. and the College of Surgeons. Four days passed before she found out what
had happened to her husband, Francis (1878-1916), and it wasn't until almost two weeks
later that the full details of his execution emerged.