EASTER 1916, HARRY CLARKE, AND CARAVAGGIO
THE LEA-WILSON COLLECTION
A Collection of Personal Belongings, letters, photographs and other memorabilia of Captain Percival Lea-Wilson, RIC (1887-1920) and his wife Dr Marie (Monica) Lea-Wilson, née Ryan (1887-1971). Includes his RIC helmet and a magnificent illuminated address by Guy's of Cork.
Captain Lea-Wilson makes a mercifully brief appearance in the narrative of Easter 1916: In the aftermath of the Rising, apparently drunk and out of control, he abused and humiliated Republican prisoners in his charge at the Rotunda Gardens. Four years later, in retaliation for this spiteful behaviour, he was shot dead on the orders of Michael Collins.
But there was much more than this to the Lea-Wilson story.
Percival ("Val") Lea-Wilson was born at Brompton, Kensington, in 1887, of upper middle-class English Protestant stock. His father, a stockbroker, was killed in a carriage accident when he was only seven; his mother, a sister of the architect Charles Fitzroy Doll (designer of the dining-room of the Titanic), remarried in 1912. An ancestor, Samuel Wilson, had been Lord Mayor of London in 1838/9 and the family home was Village Place in Beckenham.
"Val" was educated at Winchester College - a leading public school noted for its solid grounding in the Classics and the spartan lifestyle of its inmates - and New College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1909. In 1910 he enrolled as a cadet in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and in 1911 was appointed a District Inspector; he served successively at Charleville, Co. Cork, Woodford, Co. Galway, and Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath.
While in Charleville he fell in love with Marie Monique Eugenie ("Monica") Ryan, the daughter of a local (Catholic) solicitor, Patrick Ryan of "The Turrets". On being posted to Dunshaughlin he wrote her a series of letters expressing his undying love, regretting the hostility of her father, and grumbling about his job. The following - written from the Fingall Arms Hotel on 13 October 1913 - is typical:
This place is horrid, dirty, miserable. ……
I am very worried about you.
Your loving Val.
The Collection includes:
· Lithograph of "Village Place the seat of Samuel Wilson Esq., Alderman of the City of London", from a drawing by T.J. Rawlins, 1838
· Photographs and other memorabilia of Lea-Wilson's years at Winchester and Oxford
· Illuminated address by Guy's of Cork congratulating Lea-Wilson on his marriage and signed by the rector and RC curate of Charleville, praising "your strict impartiality towards all creeds and classes, your sympathetic manner in the discharge of your duties, and your courage and tact in the presence of difficulties."
· Letters from "Val" Lea-Wilson to Monica in 1913, prior to their marriage, mostly from Dunshaughlin, and from France in 1917.
· Snapshots of central Dublin immediately after the Easter Rising
· Photographs (some framed) of Lea-Wilson's funeral
· Mounted photo of Lea-Wilson with illuminated border and text of funeral oration, recalling "his abounding overflowing vitality, his infectious gaiety, his unfailing kindliness, his openhanded generosity, his large-hearted tolerance, his cheery and unflinching courage," and denouncing his death "at the hands of a gang of cowardly assassins; a murder most foul; as foul as any of those dastardly crimes which of late have brought black dishonour upon our land."
· RIC helmet in original tin container bearing his name
· Some letters re Harry Clarke's window in Gorey commemorating Lea-Wilson
· 5 receipts for moneys paid by Mrs Lea-Wilson, Westmount, Gorey, to James Hicks, cabinet manufacturer, collector and restorer, Dublin, 19 June 1922 to July 1924, includes "1 large oil painting (Betrayal of Christ) £20.0.0."
· Several letters to Dr Monica Lea-Wilson from Dr McQuaid, President of Blackrock, mostly 1938-39, and one from Marie McQuaid thanking Monica for the kindness shown to her while they were in France; also several photos of Monica with Dr McQuaid and his sisters.
· Letters to Monica from W. Sullivan 1922-28, her sister Adeline (wife of Lord Muskerry), and others
· Letters to Monica Lea-Wilson in later life re her medical work, employees, students whose post-primary education she had funded, etc.
· Documents re an aunt of Monica's who had gone to Russia as governess and apparently gone missing during the Revolution; includes letters from Cecil Harmsworth (Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) to Captain W.A. Redmond, and Charlotte Knollys, Private Secretary to the Queen Mother.
· Musical score, with illustrated title page, of "The Fireman's Polka" by Charles S. Macdona, with illustrated title page depicting a horse-drawn fire engine thundering past the statue of Daniel O'Connell and onto O'Connell Bridge. "Dedicated to Captain Boyle, Fire Brigade, Dublin" (Boyle died in 1898).
· A large number of letters and postcards sent to Monica, many in French from the art historian Paul Biver, on religious topics
** FOR FULL DESCRIPTION SEE PDF ON WEBSITE OR CONTACT OUR OFFICE
![Irish National Aid & Volunteers Dependent's Fund
[Collins (Michael)] A Collection Book for Irish National Aid and Volunteers](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/0a2353a1-4706-4340-b8b0-a5de00fcff57/828adb00-9604-4616-f26b-5e18eaa659d9/468x382.jpg)
![Constance Gore Booth, The Artist
[Markievicz (Ld. Constance)] A printed Admission Card from University College, London addre](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/0a2353a1-4706-4340-b8b0-a5de00fcff57/b1821adb-065e-43e7-ae90-335c4ac0d32f/468x382.jpg)
