Founder fell in Irish Rising

School HISTORY

Founder fell in Irish Rising

April 29, 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of an important event in the history of Selwyn House School: the death of our founder, Algernon Lucas. Shrouded in mystery and tinged with tragedy, the story of how he met his end is probably little known by members of the Selwyn House community.

Algernon Lucas was born in 1879 in Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, England, son of Thomas Sloper Lucas and Mary (Clemments) Lucas (1845-1900), and brother to Arthur, Richard, Margaret and Maud. He is described in the 1901 census as a farmer’s son. His father’s entry for the 1881 census is as a 37-year-old “licensed victualler and farmer of 105 acres employing three men and three boys.” Algernon was christened on December 28 at Saint Mary the Virgin Church, Bishops Cannings.

Colin Taylor, chairman of the Warmister Museum and History Society in England, contacted Selwyn House and informed us that Algernon Lucas had been a pupil and later a master at Lord Weymouth’s Grammar School in Warminster. His name is on the school memorial window in the Minster Church of St. Denys. Lord Weymouth’s Grammar School became Warminster School, which is an independent day and boarding school in the town, with a high reputation in England.

Dublin was a hotbed of republican unrest, with rebels...intent on liberating Ireland from 700 years of British rule.

When Lucas died, The Warminster Journal of May 5, 1916 wrote:

Lieut. Algernon Lucas...was well known in Warminster, being for many years a pupil and master at Lord Weymouth’s Grammar School. Joining His Majesty’s Forces at the commencement of the war, he was wounded in France, and stayed for some time with Mr Richard Elling, West House, to recuperate. Algernon Lucas was one of the best—a good, all-round sportsman, excelling in boxing, cricket, football and other games. He was loved and respected by all who knew him. He leaves a widow to whom we extend our deepest sympathy.”

Our founder’s life story after he came to Canada is better known to us.

In 1908, Algernon Lucas, a graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge University, arrived in Montreal from England in pursuit of a teaching career. In response to the need of Montreal’s English community for a suitable preparatory school, he was entrusted with the early education of seven young boys…. In 1912, Mr. Lucas turned to the business world and transferred the School to Mr. Colin Macaulay, a fellow graduate of Selwyn College, who re-named it Selwyn House, in honour of their alma mater.

—Veritas, by Edgar Moodey and Dr. Robert Speirs

After having established himself as a pioneer of education in Montreal, Lucas sold his interest in the school we now call Selwyn House and returned to his homeland, where he enlisted in the army and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the King Edward’s Horse cavalry regiment, serving with distinction and receiving the 1915 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal. He was wounded on August 11, 1915 (possibly also a second time) and was sent to Dublin, Ireland, perhaps to convalesce, or perhaps on active duty in that troubled city.

At that time, Dublin was a hotbed of republican unrest, with rebels organizing themselves into paramilitary units, intent on liberating Ireland from 700 years of British rule. In the spring of 1916, with England distracted by the war, the rebels seized the opportunity to rise up.

On Easter Monday, April 24, leaders of a disparate group of self-styled revolutionaries that included poets, teachers, actors and workers and a large contingent of women, gathered on the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin to read a proclamation of Irish independence. A documentary by the University of Notre Dame says that the subsequent uprising “fundamentally changed the course of Irish history and inspired freedom movements around the world to rise against their colonial masters.”

One of the unfortunate casualties of these earth-shaking events was our own founder, Lieut. Algernon Lucas.

The citizens of Dublin viewed the mounting revolution with scepticism. Britain was, at the time, totally immersed in the Great War, with England under German bombardment, and some 200,000 Dubliners taking heavy casualties on the European Front. Meanwhile, the soldiers’ families were facing privations back home. When the revolutionaries began parading through the streets, they were greeted with derisive jeers.

School HISTORY

The tragic death of Algernon Lucas

On April 16, when approximately 200 revolutionaries began to occupy government buildings, word quickly got back to London and 6,000 British troops—including cavalry, artillery and accompanying gunboat—were called in.

Civil disorder in Dublin quickly led to looting in the streets. Martial law was declared for the first time in 100 years. “In spite of the fact that German zeppelins and warships [were] bombing and shelling cities in England,” says a documentary by Notre Dame University, “Britain’s military might [was] about to be directed against Dublin.”

Fighting between the rebels and the Army soon broke out in earnest, with 230 British soldiers killed on April 18 alone, at the loss of only four rebel lives.

Word of “The Rising” soon echoed through newspapers around the world. For 14 consecutive days, coverage of the rebellion was featured on the front page of the New York Times.

The fighting was fierce and bloody, with many buildings in the central part of the city being shelled and burned out. Before it was all over, 485 people had been killed and more than 2,600 wounded. “The majority of the

casualties, both killed and wounded, were civilians,” writes Queen’s University Historian John McGarry. “Most of the civilian casualties, and most of the casualties overall, were caused by the British Army.”

By week’s end, the British had surrounded the trouble zone and forced a surrender. Sixteen of the rebel leaders were executed.

Throughout the political strife in Ireland, the Guinness Beer Company in Dublin had always maintained a loyalist stance, even going so far as to fire employees who were sympathetic with Sinn Féin. During the Rising, boiler tanks from the brewery were mounted on flatbed trucks to serve as makeshift armoured personnel carriers for the British troops. As a city landmark, the Robert Street brewery would have been watched closely.

On Friday night, April 29, the brewery was being guarded by a squad of Royal Dublin Fusiliers under the command of Quartermaster Sergeant Robert Flood of the Fifth Battalion. Sgt. Flood, a career soldier, had enlisted on January 11, 1899, at age fourteen. He had seen service at home, in Egypt, India and in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.

According to records of the Fusiliers, Mr. McMullen of the brewery had informed Captain McNamara and Sgt. Flood that there would be a night watchman on duty at the brewery. However, Captain McNamara took ill and was replaced by Lieutenant Algernon Lucas of King Edward’s Horse. The night clerk, a Mr. Rice, went to the brewery with Lucas. When they encountered Sgt. Flood, he and his guards did not recognize Lieut. Lucas, and took the officer and his companion prisoner.

Sgt. Flood told Lucas he was to be shot, and ordered the officer to remove his coat so as not to disgrace its insignia.

The guard in the malt house belonged to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Of course, Lieut. Lucas was unknown to the company, Quartermaster-Sergeant [Flood] or any of the guard. At any rate, whatever it was, the guard got into a state of jumpiness, and the consequence was that when Lieut. Lucas went round with Mr. Rice, one of the brewery officials, the sentries on several occasions got the idea that he was a stranger who had no business there. The conversations he had with them were misinterpreted, and they came to a conclusion which was utterly false.... Lieut. Lucas opened a window. The men knew that orders had been given that the windows were not to be opened. It looked very suspicious. The state of mind into which Flood had got at that time led him to arrest Lieut. Lucas and Mr. Rice.

The Irish Times

According to Fusiliers’ records, Sgt. Flood told Lucas he was to be shot, and ordered the officer to remove his coat so as not to disgrace its insignia. Lieut. Lucas asked to say his prayers and knelt on the ground. As he rose, he pleaded, “Don’t fire, Sergeant; I am only a poor

School HISTORY

The tragic death of Algernon Lucas

farmer’s son.” Lieut. Lucas was placed against a wall and the sergeant gave the order to fire. Shots rang out and Lieut. Lucas collapsed on the floor. A second order was given to fire at Mr. Rice, and he, too, fell to the floor. Mr. Rice was still alive, however, so one of the soldiers, a Private Maurice McCarthy, reloaded and fired again into the body. Some twenty minutes later, a second shooting took

The Founder’s widow at place at the scene. When Mr.

Selwyn House in 1961 Rice had failed to return to his lodgings at 101 James’s Street, his roommate and fellow Guinness employee, a Mr. Dockery, had become concerned. Accompanied by a Lieut. Worswick, Mr. Dockery had proceeded to the brewery to look for his colleague.

One of Sgt. Flood’s guards reportedly heard footsteps and shouted a warning, but there was no reply. Sgt. Flood switched on his flashlight and saw Lieut. Worswick, in uniform, with Mr. Dockery. Both men were unarmed, and agreed to be searched. One report says that one of the men lunged at his captors, perhaps when he saw the bodies of Lucas and Rice lying on the floor. At any rate, Sgt. Flood’s men opened fire and Worswick and Dockery were also killed.

The sergeant was eventually disarmed by a Captain Mariott and a Mr. Williams. The next morning the soldiers reported the killings to their superior officers.

The following June, a general court-martial was held at Richmond Barracks in Dublin to try Sgt. Flood for the murders of Lucas, Rice, Worswick and Dockery.

Lawyers for the defence claimed that Lucas and Rice had shown signs of Sinn Féin sympathies, but the judge was quick to point out that no such evidence had been produced in the case of Lucas. “I was convinced that Lucas was a Sinn Féin spy disguised as a British officer when I ordered him shot,” Sgt. Flood testified. “When I ordered his arrest he did not protest.” Sergeant Flood was in temporary charge of the brewery. He said he expected he and his men would be attacked by the rebels at any moment, and had taken special precautions that no one should be allowed to approach the building. Suddenly

Lucas appeared. Lucas acted suspiciously, Flood said. Lucas had issued instructions to open the windows of the brewery, which was contrary to the instructions of the previous officer, who had ordered them kept closed. At the same time, Flood added, his men saw lights flashed outside the building, whereupon he covered Lucas, saying he was convinced that Lucas was up to treachery.

“I thought he was going to let the rebels into the brewery,” said Flood, “and that I would have to answer for the lives of my men. Even after the shooting I did not believe that the officer was Lieutenant Lucas.”

— New York Times June 13

When Sgt. Flood was acquitted of all charges, the verdict was received with applause in the court. Many excused the incident as an unfortunate event brought on by inexperienced soldiers suffering from nervous exhaustion. On June 16, the following statement was published:

“Messrs. Arthur Guinness, Sons and Co., Limited, are authorised by Lord Cheylesmore to state that there was nothing to justify any suggestion that either Mr. Dockery or Mr. Rice was in any way connected with, or in sympathy with, the Sinn Féin rebellion. He regrets that any such idea should have arisen.”

As news of civilian deaths caused by the military filtered out by word of mouth and through the Irish Times, public opinion changed from apathy to outrage. The military were reluctant to investigate these deaths, and although trials were carried out to appease the public, they often ended without prosecution. A possible reason behind this failure to investigate is contained in a dispatch to the secretary of war on May 26 1916, written by Sir John Maxwell.

“I wish to emphasise that the responsibility for the loss of life, however it occurred, the destruction of property and other losses, rests entirely with those who engineered this revolt, and who, at the time when the Empire was engaged in a gigantic struggle, invited the assistance and cooperation of the Germans.”

A month after his trial, Sgt. Flood was transferred to the Royal Berkshire Regiment and was later promoted to Company Sergeant Major. He was killed in action at Salonika on May 9, 1917, at age thirty-three. There is no mention of his courtmartial or his acquittal in his service records.

Lieutenants Lucas and Worswick of King Edward’s Horse were buried in Dublin Castle and exhumed in the 1960s. Lieutenant Lucas was reburied at the Blackhorse Avenue military cemetery.

The legacy of the Easter Rising is profound. In Ireland, independence, civil war and partition followed, and only recently have tensions eased. Independence movements throughout the world have looked to the events of April 1916 for inspiration.

The founder of Selwyn House School was an innocent man caught up in the sweep of history, who died at age 37 as a result of the fear that too often marks a sudden turning of the tide. n