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February 1, 2018
remembrance ni
Belfast distiller’s hobby enabled early naval aviationJohn Dunville whose family owned the well-known Belfast distillery, was an early pioneer of
competitive ballooning who took leave of absence from the family company of which he was chairman to join the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). One of his sons was awarded the VC posthumously.
The sport of ballooning was popular among the wealthy from the turn of the century until the outbreak of the First World War. The Aero Club, which was founded in 1901and renamed the Royal Aero Club in 1910, organised competitions from the polo grounds at Hurlingham in Fulham and Ranelagh in Barnes.
John Dunville's first flight in a balloon was in 1906 or 1907. Flights were being offered in a War Office balloon at Aldershot for the cost of five pounds. John Dunville's flight,
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John Dunville in the “Banshee”
John Dunville was born in Holywood, County Down and was educated at Cambridge University. He became chairman of his father’s whisky distillery ‘Dunville & Company’ in Belfast. He became interested in aeronautics. In his balloons “La Mascotte” and the “Banshee,” he twice
won the Northcliffe Cup for the greatest distance travelled in a balloon. In 1908 he held the record for the longest time in the air and flew from Holyhead to Dublin in one hour and fifty minutes.
with an officer of the Army Balloon Corps, ended in a tree. The balloon was badly torn and the aeronauts climbed down from the tree with great difficulty. This did not deter John Dunville from taking up ballooning and entering competitions, several of which he won. His first balloon was 'La Mascotte', named after John Dunville's pet name for his wife Violet.
In September 1907 he won the Northcliffe Cup, which had been presented by Lord Northcliffe to the Aero Club in 1906. It was awarded to the Briton who had made the longest flight during the year. John Dunville won the cup by flying 'La Mascotte' nearly two hundred miles from London to Wales. In June 1908 he won a Hare and Hounds race from
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Redburn House, Holywood - the family residence
Hurlingham. In this type of race the winner was the balloon which landed closest to the quarry balloon.
An attempt by John Dunville to win the Northcliffe Cup in November 1908 became the first crossing of the English Channel by a balloon carrying four people: himself, his wife Violet, Mr. C.F. Pollock and Philip Gardner. This flight of his balloon 'Banshee' from London to Baelen, in the north of Belgium, covered a distance of two hundred and sixty miles in eleven hours and five minutes. John Dunville won the cup in December 1908 by flying from Chelsea Gas Works to Crailsheim near Stuttgart in Germany, once again accompanied by C.F. Pollock and Philip Gardner, in thirteen hours. One of the rules of the Northcliffe Cup was that if it was won by the same person in two consecutive years it became the property of the holder, and thus it became the property of John Dunville.
John Dunville and C.F. Pollock crossed the Irish Sea in the balloon 'St. Louis' in February 1910. Mr. Short, of Short & Co. of Battersea, assisted with the launch from the Gas Works in Dublin. Violet Dunville had hoped to travel in the balloon, but the weight of the balloon had to be reduced before the launch. She said afterwards, 'I knew I displaced three bags of ballast, which they would require to throw out, and you know they could not throw me out.' The five-hour
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The Dunville family donated Dunville Park and the Dunville fountain to the City of Belfast and sponsored the sports club which founded Distillery Football Club
flight reached an altitude of ten thousand feet and covered one hundred and sixty miles. They landed in Birtles, near Macclesfield in Cheshire.
The Irish Sea had been crossed in a balloon only twice before, forty years previously and earlier by Windham Sadler in 1817.
John Dunville and his wife Violet both competed in international ballooning competitions. In 'Banshee II' she won the Hedges Butler Challenge Cup three years running, in 1912, 1913 and 1914. The cup was awarded for the longest distance flight by any type of flying machine, starting from London on a specified day. If it was won by the same person three times in succession it became the property of the holder, and so this cup became the property of Violet Dunville.
John Dunville took part in the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett in October 1913, when it started from the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. His balloon was 'Banshee' and his co-pilot was Captain Corbet. They were placed seventeenth out of
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Numbered from left to right: (2) Andy Moore, the Head Gardener, (3) Sam Farrar, the Head Groom, (5) Stanley Baldwin, Chauffeur and Secretary, (7) Mrs. John Dunville, (8) Bobby Dunville, (10) Ernest Maggs.The words on Bobby Dunville's pullover are 'Banshee R.U.Y.C.' (Royal Ulster Yacht Club). Banshee was the name of the Dunvilles' boat, as well as some of their balloons. The car on the right is a Hotchkiss. These were made in France.twenty-one balloons, covering a distance of two hundred and twenty-six miles.
John Dunville had previously gained an M.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge and had served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 5th Battalion of the Leinster Regiment (The Royal Meath Militia). As a young man he had been an enthusiastic cross-country rider and a skillful polo player. While he was at Cambridge he was Master of the Cambridge Staghounds for two seasons, 1886 and 1887.
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John Dunville married in 1892 Violet Anne Blanche Lambart, the fifth daughter of Gustavus William Lambart, Deputy Lieutenant, of Beau Parc, County Meath. They had four children: Robert Lambart Dunville, John Spencer Dunville, William Gustavus Dunville and Una Dunville. The family lived at 46 Portland Place, London with twelve servants: a butler, two footmen, a lady's maid, a cook, two nurses, two house maids, two kitchen maids and a hall boy.
The summer months and the Christmases were spent at Redburn House, the head of which was John's father, Robert Grimshaw Dunville. Redburn House was looked after by sixteen house staff and ten groundstaff. The stables housed sixty horses for hunting and four horses for drawing carriages, all tended by sixteen grooms.
The First World War
The demands of the First World War required John Dunville to leave more of the running of Dunville & Co. to the Directors and the Managers. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a Flight Lieutenant in March 1915. He was promoted to Flight Commander in January 1916 and Squadron Commander in June 1917. He was also a Commandant of the Special Constabulary Force during the Sinn Fein troubles in Belfast.
Eldest son shot by Sinn Fein
The Dunville’s sons were serving in the army. Both had been educated at Eton. Their eldest son, Robert Lambart Dunville (1893-1931),was commissioned into the 1st Life Guards as a Second Lieutenant. At the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, he joined the Royal Bucks Hussars, still as a Second Lieutenant. This regiment suffered heavy
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casualties during the Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey, between April 1915 and January 1916. In that respect it was fortunate that Robert Dunville had just suffered an attack of acute appendicitis and was ordered back to the UK by a medical board. During the Irish Rising of April 1916, Robert Lambart Dunville was travelling by road from Belfast to Kingstown, now called Dun Laoghaire, to catch the ferry from there to England, to return to his regiment. In Castlebellingham he encountered a large group of armed rebels. Robert Dunville and his chauffeur were ordered to leave their car and stand in front of some railings, next to four policemen (Sergeant M. Wymes, Acting Sergeant Patrick Kiernan, Constable Patrick Donovan and Constable Charles McGee). Shots were fired. Robert Dunville was shot in the chest and fell against the railings; Constable McGee, shot twice in his body and twice in his left arm, also fell. Robert Dunville and Constable McGee were both twenty-three years old. Robert Dunville was carried back to his car and taken to a military hospital, where he was found to have two wounds on his chest, probably from the same bullet. Constable McGee died within a few hours of being shot. Although Robert Dunville survived, he never fully recovered from his wounds and died fifteen years later at the age of thirty-eight.
Younger son awarded VC posthumously
John Dunville's second son, Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville VC (1896-1917), had been a member of the Officer Training Corps at Eton from May 1912 to July 1914. He passed matriculation for Trinity College, Cambridge, but joined the army instead, initially serving as a Second Lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry Reserve Regiment. In April 1915 he applied to join the Royal Flying Corps and was accepted, but his course of instruction in aviation was
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cancelled a few days before he was due to start. He transferred to the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and went to France in June 1915. There he took part in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, and transferred to the 1st (Royal) Dragoons in January 1916. In April he contracted trench fever and was invalided to England. He returned to France in December 1916.
In June 1917, while he was serving in the 1st (Royal)
Dragoons, he died from wounds he received at Epehy in France. He was protecting an NCO of the Royal Engineers who was cutting wire which had been laid by the enemy. Although he was wounded by the enemy's fire, he continued to direct his men until the wire-cutting operation had been successfully completed. He remained conscious but died from his wounds the next day. The Victoria Cross which he was posthumously awarded was received by his father John Dunville from King George V at Buckingham Palace in August 1917. He was also awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Victory Medal 1914-19. A magnificent stained glass window in the grand entrance hall of Redburn House was one of several memorials dedicated to him.
In the same year his father John Dunville was promoted to Wing Commander, with four hundred and fifty officers and two thousand men under his command at the No. 1 Balloon
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Training Wing, Roehampton. He transferred as a Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, Kite Balloon Officer, to the Royal Air Force in April 1918 and was demobilised in 1919. He was made a Commander of the British Empire for his services during the war. He used the title 'Colonel' from his earlier
service in the Leinster Regiment.
Remembrance
The Priory Churchyard in Holywood has the Dunville family grave and a memorial stone to John erected there (Grave 178/188). In Redburn Square in
the town is the local war memorial and the area was laid out in John Dunville's honour. Dunville's name is one of those listed on this memorial. John also is commemorated with a plaque and memorial window in St Mary's and St Philip’s Parish Church, Hollywood.
After the war, Violet Dunville arranged for a wreath to be laid every Remembrance Day in memory of her son on the family grave in the cemetery.
On her death she left £196,569 and part of that sum is used to pay for this annual event, and, in addition, £500 was also left to Hollywood Parish Church to establish a trust to provide gifts to the needy on Armistice Day. A further £500 was left to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
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Dunville's VC and medals are kept with the Household Cavalry Museum in Windsor.
On this day - January 1
WW1
1915 - Germans use poison gas against the Russians at Bolimov
1915 - U-boats sink two British steamers in the English Channel
1916 - President Woodrow Wilson refuses to compromise on the Lusitania reparations
1917 - Germany resumes unlimited sub warfare, warning that all neutral ships that are in the war zone will be attacked.
1918 - “Battle of May Island” in which two RN submarines sank with loss of 106 lives after accidental collisions in the Firth of Forth while en route to an exercise. Three men from Ni were lost. (See Remembrance NI - 31/01/2019)
WW2
1943 - Battle of Stalingrad ends as small groups of German soldiers of the Sixth Army surrender to the Red Army
1944 - American Army and Marine forces land on the Kwajlien atoll in the Marshall Islands.The island was declared secure four days later. Almost all Japanese defenders were destroyed, including some 300 Korean slaves…Photograph follows…
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1944 - 1 London Irish, the Irish Brigade - "Plans were made for another attack on Castelforte. All was being prepared for action when suddenly the telephone rang at battalion headquarters. The Commanding Officer answered it and turning to the Adjutant said: “It’s all off, we are going to Anzio.”
1944 - Major Lawrie Franklyn Vaile 1 RIrF in Italy on 31/01/44 writing home to his wife: "The Russians continue to do great work. The advance from Leningrad is highly satisfactory & arousing a great interest among the men. The ‘Eight Army News’, published daily, is very pro-Russian and often has excellent articles about re-construction after the War. A lot of people out here wonder what’s going to happen about the Middle East afterwards. I suppose the prospective Second Front is causing a lot of discussion at home."
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1945 - UK Commandos took Hill 170 in the Battle of Kangaw in Burma. They fought hand to hand for two days against the Japanese and held off a counter-attack. The action was critical to the larger Allied effort against Japan. No1 Army Command, RM Commandos and No.5 Army Commando took part. Lt George Knowland was awarded a VC for his part in the action in which he was killed.
On this day - February 11940 - General Timoshenko launches his big offensive across the iced up straits of Viipuri Bay, although Finnish aircraft raids disrupt these attacks.
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The battleship Alabama (BB-60) is laid down at the Norfolk, Virginia.
In Japan, expenditure on the military accounts for half of the national budget for 1940.
1941 - The Admiral Hipper slips out of Brest for another sortie into the Atlantic.
Agordat in Eritrea falls to the 5th Indian Division after 2 days of fighting.
The US Navy is reorganized in to the Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic fleets and ordered to gradually bring ship crews up to war establishment.
1942 - The Red Army begins an offensive toward Vyazma. Zhukov is promoted to command the West Theatre, which includes the Kalinin, West and Bryansk Fronts.
Quisling forms a puppet government in Norway.
All U-boats adopt a new Enigma cipher known as ‘Triton’. The new cipher replaces the previous cipher, ‘Hydra’ and has an additional rotor in the Enigma machine. This meant that the British were unable to read U-boat coded communications traffic until much later in the year, seriously affecting there ability re-route their convoys around U-boat wolf packs.
First U.S. aircraft carrier offensive of the war as Yorktown and Enterprise conduct air raids on Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.
USS Enterprise is damaged in attacks on Japanese-held airfields in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
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1943 - German troops evacuate Demyansk.
Twenty Japanese destroyers begin the evacuation of 13,000 troops from Guadalcanal.
1944 - The Polish underground executes Major Fritz Kurschera, the chief of the Gestapo in Poland.
1945 - The U.S. First Army takes Remscheid, 20 miles to the East of Dusseldorf. The U.S. Seventh Army reaches Moder and Siegfried Line.
Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front surround the fortress town of Küstrin. Since the 20th January, the Kriegsmarine has evacuated 140,000 civilian refugees and 18,000 wounded soldiers by sea from East Prussia.
U.S. troops land unopposed to the Southwest of Manila.
In Remembrance - January 31
WW1
+GIBSON, IsaacRN. Chief Engine Room Artificer. 2nd Class. 270632. HM Submarine K.17. Died 31/01/1918. Age 39. Born Downpatrick. 22/03/1879. Before the war he worked as a mechanic with J & TM Greeves, flax spinners - mills in Conway St., and Cupar St. Belfast. Son of Samuel and Charlotte Gibson, Tennent Street, Belfast; husband to Ellen Duncan Gibson, Sidney St., Saltcoats, Ayrshire. Plymouth Naval Memorial. Tennent Street, Argyll Place - PCI RH. ADM 188/434/270632
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+McDONALD, John RiddellRN. Stoker 1st Class. SS114477. He was in HMS Boadicea at Jutland. Died 31/01/1918 in HM Submarine K.17, collision in North Sea. Age 24. Enrolled 23/07/1913 for 5 and 7 years. Served in Pembroke, Dominion, Dolphin, Maidstone and Crescent (K17). Born Belfast, 05/09/1894. Son of Hugh G. and Sarah J. McDonald, Central Fire Station, Chichester St., Belfast. Chatham Naval Memorial. Rosemary St. - PCI RH. ADM 188/1120/114477
+HAYES, Joseph CharlesRN. Stoker 1st Class. K19004. HM Submarine Fearless K4. Died 31/01/1918. Age 24. Enrolled 18/04/1913 for 12 years. War service in Pembroke II, Blonde, Marshall Ney, Dolphin and Fearless K4. Born Belfast 07/09/1893. Son of Joseph Charles Hayes, Belfast; husband to Minnie Hayes, Shaftesbury St., Belfast. Chatham Naval Memorial. ADM 188/905/19004
WW2
+JOHNSTON, James Guy
RAFVR. Flying Officer (Pilot).135076. Died 31/03/1944. Aged 28. 103 Sqdn. Son of William and Mary Guy Johnston, of Eglinton, Co. Londonderry. Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordheim-Westfalen, Germany (Squadron record in Remembrance NI - 31/01/2019)
+GWYNNE, William James
RAFVR. Sergeant (Flight Engineer).1566687. Died 31/03/1944. Aged 21. 103 Sqdn. Son of William James
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Gwynne and Annie Gwynne, of Omagh, Co. Tyrone. Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordheim-Westfalen, Germany
+HILLIS, John
RAFVR. Sergeant (Flight Engineer).1567503. Died 31/03/1944. Aged 26. 78 Sqdn. Son of John Scott Hillis, and of Margaret Jane Hillis, of Inver, Co. Antrim. Hanover War Cemetery, Neidersachen, Germany
+HILLEN, James
Royal Artillery. Gunner.1427283. Died 31/01/1944. Aged 24. 16 Defence Regt. Son of Patrick and Bridget Hillen, of Newry, Co. Down. Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan
In Remembrance - February 1
WW1
+ANDERSON, Albert Stewart Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Second Lieutenant. Died 01/02/1917. Age 34. Severely wounded 25/01/1917. Sullivan Upper School. Holywood. Graduate of QUB Faculty of Arts 1903 - 04 and Bachelor of Engineering 1910. A keen cricketer, he played for the senior eleven in Holywood. After graduation he worked as an assistant engineer on several contracts in Ireland before moving to Canada where he was involved in construction work on the Canadian Pacific and Pacific Great Eastern Railways. He returned home towards the end of 1915 and joined the Training Corps on 01/11/1915. He obtained a commission, went to France in June 1916 and served with the 9th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 109th Brigade of the 36th( Ulster)
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Division. Born 02/11/1886 in Canada. Son of Thomas and Annie Anderson, High St., Holywood,. Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension Nord, France. Holywood WM. First Holywood PCI.
+BLACK, TRM Labour Corps. Private. Deal/13809(S). Died 01/02/1919. Age 48. Born Belfast. Son of Samuel and Jane Black; husband to Sarah Taylor (formerly Black), Urney St., Belfast. Belfast City Cemetery
+McQUILLAN, JamesRNR. Seaman. 7602A. HM Drifter John Robert. Died 01/02/1919. Age 33. Son of Charles and Bridget McQuillan, High St., Newry. Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 32
WW2
+McCLURG, JamesRoyal Artillery. Gunner.1475272. Died on 01/02/1940. Aged 35. 315 Battery, 102 Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment. Husband of Marion McClurg of Belfast. Belfast City Cemetery, Glenalina
+HAWTHORNE, James ThomasRAFVR. Sergeant. 973032. Died 01/02/1941. Aged 27. 144 Sqdn. Son of Mary Hawthorne of Belfast. Dundonald Cemetery
+HUNTER, William James GrahamRNPS. Stoker. LT/KX 108031. Died 01/02/1941. HM Trawler Bervie Braes - was completed on 28/12/1917 and taken
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over by the Admiralty in March 1940. Husband of Emma Hunter. Falmouth Cemetery, Cornwall. Portadown WM
+McGEOWN, George ErnestRAFVR. Sergeant. 1378907. Died 01/02/1943. Aged 26. Son of John and Sophia McGeown of Belfast. Aghalee (Soldierstown) Church of Ireland Churchyard
+MILLAR, JohnRN.. AB. C/SSX 26454. Died 01/02/1943. Age 22. HMS Welshman. Son of William and Annie Millar, of Belfast. Chatham Naval Memorial
+REID, Maurice Cheyne
RAFVR. Pilot Officer. 178071. Died 01/02/1944. Aged 25. 14 Sqdn. Son of William Irwin Reid and Sadie Reid, of Londonderry. Malta Memorial, Panel13, Malta
Acknowledgments
CWGCDunville family archives
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remembrance ni
The remembrance ni programme is overseen by Very Rev Dr Houston McKelvey OBE, QVRM, TD who served as Chaplain to 102 and 105 Regiments Royal Artillery (TA), as Hon. Chaplain to RNR and as Chaplain to the RBL NI area and the Burma Star Association NI. Dr McKelvey is a Past President of Queen’s University Services Club. He may be contacted at [email protected]
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