Interesting also to see that “holster” among the “Memorabilia” bought by Mr Gerry Burroughs. I have a photo of one, very similiar, which was owned by an Uncle who had been in the British Army but who also joined the Volunteers in Dublin 1918, after Demob. My Uncle’s is now held by Waterford County Museum, Dungarvan Co.Waterford.

Further to my previous corespondence, historically the officer class of the British Army were sons, usually third sons of the Gentry. Tudor was a vicar’s son, but his place of birth and his father’s Anglican parish of Newton-Abbey, Devon, England, was the site of one of many many English and Irish hiring fairs of the itinerant Nnewfoundland codfishery for 300 years and for West-Country merchants whose ships and crews crossed the Atlantic Ocean which under sail after taking on foodstuffs at Passage East, County Waterford, Ireland,every Spring for 3 centuries which normally one way was a six-week voyage. In Newfoundland then deemed in law to be a British Naval Ship moored in the Gulf of St Lawrence and not open to immigration beind de jure a military establishment. The cocfish was salted, later washed and sun and wind dried ashore in the merchants’ premises known in the trade as “Rooms.” The fish was brought home to England under sail by the late autumn ( 9 months away from home),culled and sold from centres like Bristol or Poole to foreign countries. At the time of the signing of The Treaty of Paris in 1783 which officially the United States of America as a sovereign country and a novel experiment of democracy by elected representation , the value to the Empire of the itinerant Newfoundland fishery equalled that of the accumulated, gross-national production of the former thirteen American colonies. Cumulatively, towns like Sturnminster-Marshall, eight miles up River Sturn from Newfoundland Houseat Poole, County Dorset, England, the birthplace of Strongbow (Richard de CLare) and many of my ancestors, employed annually up to 3,000 men just making sweaters(ganseys) used by the itinerants fishing annually in Newfoundland and thus, its creation of secondary industry in the mother country.

The Bradley family had a large estate and mansion at Newton-Abbot or within walking distance of it. They were very successful fish merchants and later had businesses at Bonavista, Newfoundland. Maybe, on their frequent trips between Bonavista and Newton-Abbot, Devon, England, all of the Bradley family would know the General’s dad in his role of vicar. They might have been instrumental directlu or indirectly in his move here.

Just as was the case in Quebec, the Catholic hierarchy having witnessed the enactment of the “Freedom of Worship” Act in 1783 bt the British Parliament, thanks to World conflicts of that era not from the icy hearts of the Empire-builders or so-calle reformers, the Catholic hierarchy of Newfoundland, became like most Newfoundlanders down to the end of the 20th century save for a few of us born in Catholic enclaves run by radical priests, being Irish in Newfundland no longer was cool. My generation of the 50’s found Country-Western Music and Rock which remained for 20 years

Moreover, the Catholic herarchy, domiciled in St John’s. NL decided with the passing of The Quebec Act by the British Parliament in 1784, ensured that then British colony that the French language, the Roman Catholic Religionand their feudal system of seigneuries would continue and not ended till 1824.
Inasmuch as the French Revolution of 1793 to use my father’s phrase, “gave the French too much democracy.” Mob rule was its result represented by the tri-color flag of red, white and blue. Even Christianity was outlawed and banned for two years following its success to overthrow ,imprison and behead is God-given, coronated with crism, king.

The consequences of the French Revolution had a great effect on the Roman Catholic hierarchy not only in Ireland and in Newfoundland, but thoughout the Catholic world. Catholics generally believe the pope is Christ-Vicar on earth, and unlike those of the Protestant denominations like the United Church of Canada formed in 1925 by Congregionalists, Methodists and some not all Presbyterian Churches , who believe power goes directly from God to the people ( put six of them together and immediately they will create a Board), Anglicans and Catholics generally believe that spiritual power goes directly from God to the Archbishop of Canerbury and he Queen as Supreme Governor and downwards to the people. Temporal power flows from God to the Queen in Parliament as a consensus reached upon the re-esablishment of the British Monarchy in 1660. Catholics merely substitute the Pope as Christ-Vicar giving him spiritual power while The Queen in Parliament has God-given temporal power. The Catholic hierarchy in Newfoundland was not lost on that fact of life

There were few, if any, free thinkers in Newfoundland. As late as 1783, Michael Keating, of Harbour Main, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, had his fishing premises burnt to the ground by the Royal Navy because he permitted an itinerant Catholic priest to say mass for his Catholic dieters (fishermen) in one of his stores (fish sheds). He was fined 50 Imperial Pounds and exiled from the colony forthwith. In Newfoundland, the governor paid a bounty of 30 shillings to ayone delivering a dead or alive wolf or popish priest to the British authorities. Yet, thanks to changes in world events within a shot time, Catholic priests were brought under the rule of Bishop O’Donel who was a paid informer, and who,upon retirement was approved to receive a British-government pension, went from being hunted to unofficial agents of the British Empire. Gaelic was destroyed within one generation by the church and Irish- Newfoundlanders joined their island-domiciled Protestant brothers to bcome by 1914,according to Curchill, to be “more loyal than the king.” Mym first cousin thrice removed, Sir Edward Patrick (from January 1, 1918 – 1935, 1st Baron of SXt John’s, NL and Waterford, Ireland),Morris was from 1908 to Decembeer 31, 1917, a Catholic, Prime Minister of Newfoundland and a member of the War Council of the British Empire during World War 1. British generals including Tudor, were surprised of the numbers of Irish-Catholic volunteers in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment that it was the first regiment of the British Army since the Reformation, to be permitted to have a Roman Catholic priest in uniform as padre. Father Nangles who later quit the priesthood a decade after the war ended to marry and settle in Rhodesia, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and for a decade after the War supervised Newfoundland’s efforts to create parks and cemeteries in France as evidenced there today. Maybe, Morris or he suggested to authorities that general Tudor might survive in Newfoundland.

In passing, I report that Carla Furlong is now a spry 90 year-old Gaelic-speaking, Anglican, harp teacher. She learned to speak Gaelic with a group associated with Memorial University. Her father was a lawyer and her maiden name was “Emerson.” I knew that prior to Confederation Sir Edward Emerson was a member of the Commission of Government which from 1933 to 1949,ruled Newfoundland as a junta appointed by the British government leaving the St John’s City Council with Andy Carnell the only elected body in Newfoundland (Andy was an undertaker). Later, Sir Edward Emerson was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Newfoudland. When I asked Carla if she were related to Sir Eward Emerson she replied:”Oh yes, he was father’s first cousin, but he was a Catholic Emerson.” I did not ask her why but we in the Irish Catholic enclave and especially on “Beal na Faolain” thnought he was qujite harsh and certainly not a Roman Catholic. Another obvious relative of Carla’s husband, Chief Justice Robert Furlong, retired from the Supreme Court here in the late seventies or eighties. He was never married, spoke with an Oxford accent though educated at St Bonaventure’s College,my alma mater too, and who was thoroughly disliked by most who knew him. He reportedly was knighted by a former pope, practiced Catholicism fervently but dated an English-born divorcee for years though they never co-habited but I think they were neighbors in a posh area of St John’s. Well into his eighties, he died when his house caught fire. None I knew, mourned his horrific death.

I include the foregoing so that it is not lost to successive researchers who may follow my leads here. Thanh You!

Michael J Laurie, NP., BA., BL., JD
Retired Barrister and Solicitor,
Strahlaurie House,
Wabana, Bell Island, NL A0A 1H0

E-MAIL:michaeljlauriw@gmail.com