Letter from Gertrude Bannister to C. Spencer Smith, 29 July 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Gertrude Bannister

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 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

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This is a copy of a letter sent by Gertrude Bannister, a cousin of Roger Casement (1864-1916), to C. Spencer Smith of Queen Anne's School in London. Owing to the publicity Bannister had drawn through her Casement campaign the school had decided to terminate her employment but would not make the reason for termination public. In the letter, Bannister requests the explicit reason for the termination as it was unlikely to have been owing to unsatisfactory service. She asks that the matter be out before the board of governors but insists that she will not appeal the decision. The letter was written while Casement was imprisoned in London after he had been arrested while landing on the coast of Kerry in a submarine on the eve of the Easter Rising. Bannister was heavily involved in raising public support for Casement during his trial for treason.

 National Library of Ireland Roger Casement Papers, Collection List No A15; Ms. 13,075 /1 https://letters1916.ie/item/5475 English Gertrude Bannister 1916-07-29 C. Spencer Smith Female Easter Rising Ireland 1916 Easter Rising Ireland 1916 Industry and Public Administration

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 Copy of letter sent to C,Spencer Smith July 29th 1916 Dear Sir I beg to acknowledge receipt of yr letter gladly enclosing my Thrift Scheme securities & a cheque for £40 in lieu of notice. I think that after 17 years service, during which time I have had no notification from either the Head Mistress or the Governors that my work at Queen Anne's School was otherwise than satisfactory (which I think I am entitled to assume it was in consideration of the fact that the Governors entrusted to me the control of the School during the Head Mistress's absence of four months in India) that I am entitled to ask them to be more explicit as to the reasons which have inspired them to dismiss me from their service. It will be easily understood that a bare statement such as is contained in the resolution passed by the Committee itself open to several constructions. As the Agreement with the Governors referred to states that a Mistress is only dismissed from their service without notice for serious misconduct or other causes equally grave it will most assuredly leave me open to the implication that it was for some such reason I was dismissed. The Head Mistress's letter, stating merely that the Committee did not think it wise for me to return also gives no clear reason. P.T.O. I therefore ask you to be so very kind as to lay this matter before the Chairman of the Governors & to ask him as a matter of common fairness to one who has done her best to render faithful & useful service to the School for nearly 17 years to state clearly the real reason for which I am dismissed. Please understand that I do not in any way appeal against my dismissal, I accept it without any comment, but I think the Governors cannot fail to see the justness of my request that I should be clearly told why they think I am no longer fitted to be in their service. Yours faithfully GA Bannister C. Spencer Smith Letter from C. Spencer Smith to Gertrude Bannister, 29 July 1916Letter from C. Spencer Smith to Gertrude Bannister, 31 July 1916Letter from C. Spencer Smith to Gertrude Bannister, 31 July 1916Letter from Gertrude Bannister to C. Spencer Smith, 29 July 1916 Gertrude Bannister Letter from Gertrude Bannister to Colonel Maurice Moore, 22 July 1916Letter from George Bernard Shaw to Gertrude Bannister, 12 July 1916Letter from Dora Shorter to Gertrude Bannister, 1916Letter from C. Spencer Smith to Gertrude Bannister, 29 July 1916Letter from C. Spencer Smith to Gertrude Bannister, 31 July 1916Letter from C. Spencer Smith to Gertrude Bannister, 31 July 1916Telegram from Brixton Prison to Gertrude Bannister, 20 May 1916Letter from Henry W. Nevinson to Gertrude Bannister, 10 July 1916Letter from Henry W. Nevinson to Gertrude Bannister, 12 July 1916Letter from J.S. Northcote to Gertrude Bannister, 31 July 1916Letter from E. Blackwell to Gertrude Bannister, 2 August 1916Telegram from Sidney Parry to Gertrude Bannister, 29 August 1916Letter from A. Holmes to Gertrude Bannister, 23 July 1916Letter from Gertrude Bannister to C. Spencer Smith, 29 July 1916