Bennett's of Ballinacurra Descriptive List (Ref. B609)

B609/

B609/9/B/5 Letter from Laura Romney Bennett, 44 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London, to ‘Dear Sir’ [John H Bennett]. The letter concerns family connections between Bennetts in Britain and Bennetts in Ireland. It is dated 15 October, but no year is given. [c1890]. B609/9/B/6 Letters to Mr Hartnett, former employee, from John H Bennett (1928, 1930), and a letter from Dorothy Trevor McNeill, dated 28 June 1935, giving Hartnett an account of Bennett’s last days, and of his funeral [Hartnett seems to be living abroad]. She writes ‘He so hated publicity that we decided not to have a large funeral. Instead he was taken on his last journey to our little Church in Midleton at 6.30 in the evening, with his employees and tenants following in procession. At midnight a very small gathering of invited persons returned to the Church, and he was laid to his last resting place, lit by the lanterns of the malthouses, lowered into his grave by four of his yachting friends, and carried by Jerry Ring, Timon [Ring], Paddy Walsh and Larry Carey. They, with John L Sullivan and Denis Hourihan, who had all remained loyal to him during the Strike, filled the earth into his grave, turning it and placing it with the precision of a maltster’s shovel’. The letter is damaged, with part of middle of both pages missing. In his letters to Hartnett, dated 24 April 1928 and 12 March 1930, Bennett enquires after his health and informs him of news from Ballinacurra. B609/9/B/7 Photographs of yachts owned by John H Bennett. Four photographs present. Two are of the yacht ‘Myth’, stamped on the back with the company stamp of Camper & Nicholson Ltd, Yacht Builders, Gosport. One shows ‘Myth’ under sail, the other shows it at the shipyard. A third photograph is apparently also of ‘Myth’, and shows it under sail with a party on board, the silhouetted figure to the fore possibly being Bennett. The other photograph is of the yacht ‘Verve’ and is inscribed on the back ‘Verve at East Ferry 1931 taken by Teddy Bagwell’. Bennett owned ‘Verve’ from 1913 to 1931. He purchased ‘Myth’ in 1933.

B609/9/B/8 Newscutting from the Glasgow Herald, 3 July 1931, showing picture of ‘Mr JH Bennett’s Cutter Verve Which Is Taking Part In The Clyde Fortnight Racing’.

B609/9/B/9 Score Book, Boords Cricket Club, 1878. Also known as Black Boords CC. The club included John H Bennett and his friend JO Young, as well as ER Howe and AJO Tabutean. It is not clear where matches were played, but the names of the players and of opposing sides – Wybrant’s, Verschoyle’s, Scott’s – suggest Arlington School was the connection. About six matches are documented, each side most commonly comprised of four or five players. There is a note of averages inside the back cover, Bennett having the best average of 17.818. A note of batting averages for the previous season is given on the first page. A note of books and prices or value of them occupies some pages in the middle of the book, which is an ordinary note book, not a formal score book.

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