Non-Australian civilian Birdwood connections
This section of the Birdwood blog series contains names of non-Australian civilians, politicians, diplomats and businessmen. Some were people in authority, while others are everyday citizens writing to thank Birdwood for his service. One lady, Mrs Phillips, billeted Anzacs in her home in Edinburgh and had developed a high regard for the men. If have any connection to these people, please contact Charis May via PubandDig@awm.gov.au
Other blogs relating to Birdwood correspondence can be found here : Australian military Birdwood connections, Unidentified Birdwood connections, Australian Birdwood connections, Non-Australian ex-military Birdwood connections and Non-Australian military Birdwood connections
Thomas Baker
Mr Baker wrote to Birdwood in April 1916 from his home at 7 Goldstone Street Hove, England. At the time, he was 77 years old and had lived in Hove (near Brighton) for 55 years. He was living there during the 1911 census with his wife Josephine.
Sir William Bull, 1st Baronet
Sir William Bull (1863-1931) held the seat of Hammersmith and Hammersmith South in Parliament from 1900 till 1929. During the war, he served as an officer in the C Company of Bushmen (West London Volunteers). He had four sons to his wife Lilian Hester Brandon: Stephen; George; Anthony and Peter.
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain KG
Sir Joseph Chamberlain (1963-1937) was the older half-brother of the Right Honourable (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain. He was a British statesman and received the Noble Peace Prize through his efforts to reduce growing tensions with Germany and its neighbours in 1925 through the Locarno Pact. During the war he was the Secretary of State for India then a member of the War Cabinet. He had three children, Joseph, Beatrice and Lawrence to his wife Ivy.
Sir Courtauld Greenwood Courtauld-Thomson, 1st Baron Courtauld-Thomson CB KBE
Sir Courtauld-Thomson (1865-1954) was a British businessman who held a number of public office and charitable positions. In the lead up to the First World War, he was the chairman of the Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation along with other director positions. In 1914 he was appointed the Commissioner for the Red Cross and Order of St John. During the Second World War, he turned his residence in Buckinghamshire into a hostel for officers of the allied air forces. His father, Robert William Thomson from Edinburgh was famous as the inventor of the pneumatic tyre. His sister Elspeth married the author Kenneth Grahame. He had two other siblings – Winifred and Harold. Sir Courtauld-Thomson did not marry.
Walter Draper
Mr Draper was the Director of the Government Gardens at the Delta Barrage in Egypt. Many Australians enjoyed the gardens and his hospitality while convalescing in Egypt. See http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/74592231 for more information on him and the Barrage. He also authored a number of books related to bugs and gardens in Egypt.
Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher GCVO KCB PC DL
Lord Esher (1852-1930) was, among other roles, a historian and Liberal politician. During the war he was described as the ‘de facto head’ of British Intelligence in France. He published works on King Edward VII and Lord Kitchener. Esher married Eleanor Van de Weyer in 1897, and they had two sons, Oliver and Maurice, and two daughters, Dorothy and Sylvia.
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe
Lord Northcliffe was an English newspaper publishing magnate. Born 15 July 1865 in Ireland, he died in London 14 August 1922. He had three younger brothers: Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere; Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth; Sir Leicester Harmsworth, 1st Baronet; and Sir Hildebrand Harmsworth, 1st Baronet.
Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert
Aubrey Herbert (1880-1923) was a British diplomat and was offered the throne (which he rejected) of Albania after his contribution to their independence. During the First World War held the office of Member of Parliament for South Somerset while serving with the Irish Guards as an intelligence officer. His knowledge as a linguist made him instrumental in organising the truce with Mustafa Kemal at Gallipoli in May 1915 to bury the dead. He had four children with his wife Mary, the daughter of the 4th Viscount de Vesci. Their only son Auberon died unmarried. The eldest daughter Gabriel married Major Alexander Dru, their second daughter Ann married Major Alastair Edward George Grant, while the youngest daughter Laura married the author (Arthur) Evelyn Waugh.
Kenwick Smith Kaye
Not 100% sure of the spelling. This could also be a company name. He or they appear to be lawyers responsible for dispersing Lord Kitchener's estate. The office was at 2 Suffolk Lane, Cannon Street London in June 1916.
Walter Hume Long, 1st Viscount Long PC FRS JP
Walter Long (1854-1924) was a British politician most remembered for his links to Irish Unionism and lead the Irish Unionist Party from 1906-1910. He held a number of positions during the First World War including President of the Local Government Board, during which time he assisted with Belgium refugees, and Secretary of State for the Colonies. After the war he held the office of First Lord of and Admiralty from 1919-1921. He was married to Lady Dorothy Blanche Boyle. Their eldest son Brigadier General Walter Long DSO CMG was killed in action in 1917. They had one other son, Richard Eric Onslow, and three daughters, Victoria Florence de Burgh, Doreen Ethel Nora and Lettice Margaret.
Sir Thomas Noble Mackenzie
Sir Thomas Mackenzie was born in March 1853 in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of five children to David Stewart Mackenzie, a gardener, and his wife, Rebecca Noble. He was New Zealand High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1912 to 1920. Mackenzie and his wife Ida had five sons and two daughters – one of his sons was Clutha Nantes Mackenzie. He passed away in Dunedin in 1930.
Edith Julia Monins
Edith (nee Cobbold) was married to John Henry Monins, owner and heir of Ringwould House in Dover. The family were friends of Birdwood and Kitchener. They had a son John Eaton Monins who married Emily Chevallier, and four daughters, one of whom Adela, married Kitchener’s nephew Henry Franklin Chevallier Kitchener, Viscount Broome in 1916.
David McLaren Morrison
David Morrison is best known as the author of India and Imperial Federation. He appears to have been born in Islington, London 23 April 1849 and died Lulworth Castle, Wareham, Dorset in February 1924. He was married to Alice Henriette Antoinette de Worms, and was the father of Esther Agnes Alice Sophie Coates (born in India 1899 and died 1978 Los Angeles USA) and Theodora Alexandra McLaren (born London 1900 and died 1928 in England). Esther married Allison Walter Coates in Los Angeles in 1928, and they had four children – Anita, David, Dorothy and Myrtle.
Konstantin Dmitrievich Nabokov
Nabokov was born in 1872, the son of Dmitriy Nikolaevich Nabokov, and started his diplomatic career in 1896. He worked in the Russian embassy to Britain and in 1917 became the ambassador of the Russian Provincial Government. He resigned his post in 1919 and was later sent to Norway. Nabokov returned to Britain in the mid-1920s where he settled. Nabokov was uncle to the writer Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899-1977) and his older brother Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov (1870), a journalist and statesman, was assassinated in 1922. Konstantin Dmitrievich Nabokov died in 1927 at Barnet, London.
Marquess of Lansdowne
This is most likely Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne – though it could also have been his son Henry William Edmund, the 6th Marquess. The letter was written to Birdwood from the family’s London residence, Lansdowne House in Berkeley Square London, in April 1916. The current title belongs to Charles Maurice Petty-Fitzmaurice, the 9th Marquess.
Mrs C M Phillips
Mrs Phillips wrote to Birdwood in August 1919 from her home in Edinburgh where she had billeted Australian and New Zealand soldiers. She is most likely Mrs Margaret Phillips, the wife of John, and the mother of Hector, Malcolm, John and Janet. They lived at Rossarden House, Granton Road, Edinburgh. She included two poems about the Anzacs at Gallipoli in her letter: Farewell to Anzac and Farewell to Gallipoli.
Mr Arthur Henry Renshaw, Esq
Arthur Renshaw was one of the executors of Kitchener’s will. His son Horatio was the Godson of Kitchener. According to the 1911 Census, Renshaw was living at 30 Curzon Street, in the Mayfair district of London with his wife Winifred Edith, and children Horatio Herbert, Vivien Edith and Michael Oliver. Renshaw’s letter of 27 June 1916 had the letter head 37 Portman Square Mayfair, though in another letter to Birdwood, the address is from Watlington Park Oxon (most likely Oxford).
Prince Victor Duleep Singh
Prince Victor was the eldest son of Maharani Bamba Müller and Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of Lahore and of the Sikh Empire. Educated at Eton and Trinity College in Cambridge, he married Lady Anne Blanche Alice Coventry. He was a lifelong friend of Lord George Carnavon and his wife Almina Carnavon, whose home is now used as the backdrop for the television series, Downton Abbey.
Mr Alexander Strachan Watt
Mr Watt (d. 1948) is the son of Alexander Pollock Watt who founded one of the oldest established literary agencies in the world. Founded in 1875, A P Watt & Son was most recently acquired by United Agents in 2012. Alexander (son) wrote to Birdwood from the offices in Hastings House, Norfolk Street, Strand, in 1916 in the hope of encouraging him to write his memoirs.