From the Archives: Super Macs make an historic find.

‘Leap Year Times’ Saturday, February 29th 1992

prepared by Mrs. McGloin’s 4th Class at that time.

The OneCreative Commons License Matthias Ripp via Compfight

Mrs McGloin, our Teacher, thinks that the McDonald children are wonderful.

As we all know, she is very interested in history.

Two years ago, when the Burnaby Farmhouse was falling down, Jason and Fergus Mc Donald were playing in the garden near the house. By a broken window, they found some old letters.

Their sister, Lisa brought these letters into school. It was discovered that they were very important indeed. One of the letters was part of an eye witness account of the death of Colonel Fred Burnaby written by a soldier who was holding his hand when he died in Sudan in 1885.

Another letter was from Disraeli, Prime Minister of England. It is dated 1877 and the address is 10 Downing Street. It congratulates Burnaby on his book, which we think is ‘The Ride to Khiva’.

The third letter is a note from Don Carlos, a Spanish prince, who Burnaby met when he went to Spain during the Carlist wars. This man was a pretender to the Spanish throne. The note is about a dinner inviation and the date is 1882.

 

These letters are being kept in a safe place until we have our own heritage centre in Greystones.

Well done to our three young historians.

Placenames in Greystones named after Colonel Frederick Burnaby, his wife Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed and members of her family.

The Burnaby

The marriage of Colonel Frederick Burnaby and Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed explains the names of a lot of places in Greystones. Click HERE to read more about Colonel Burnaby and HERE to read more about Elizabeth.

There are many place called after Colonel Burnaby even though he only paid a short visit here. He died in 1885. Elizabeth was a landowner in Greystones. She owned the land on which the Burnaby Estate is built. She called the estate after Colonel Burnaby. It was built in the early 1900s.

There is the Burnaby Estate, Burnaby Park and The Burnaby Pub also in the town

Burnaby Avenue
Burnaby Court
Burnaby Heights
Burnaby Lawn
Burnaby Manor
Burnaby Mews
Burnaby Mill
Burnaby Park
Burnaby Way
and Burnaby Wood

In the Burnaby Estate there is

St. Vincent’s Road (called after Elizabeth’s father). Here it is in 1985:
St.VincentsRd1995001

Hawkins Lane

Whitshed Road (Hawkins and Whitshed were Elizabeth’s family names).

Portland Road ( The Duke of Portland was Elizabeth’s cousin). This is Portland Road in 1985:
PortlandRd1995001PortlandRd95001

Somerby Road after the town in Leicestershire where the family had connections,

Erskine Avenue after another family member

and Burnaby Road.

Here are some photos of Burnaby Park around 1985

BurnabyPk001Burnaby95001Burnaby001Park95001

From the Archives – Timeline of the Life and Times of Colonel Frederick Burnaby and Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed

Click HERE to see a timeline of the life and times of

Colonel Frederick Burnaby and Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed.

Mechanical watches Vladimir Yaitskiy via Compfight

 

Famous People – Colonel Frederick Burnaby & Elizabeth Whitshed

Greystones - The Burnaby HotelCreative Commons License William Murphy via Compfight

Lots of places in Greystones are called after Colonel Burnaby.

Who was he?

Colonel Frederick Burnaby was a Victorian celebrity:

a soldier, adventurer, and writer.

He and his new wife Elizabeth Whitshed travelled

to North Africa on honeymoon,

but due to delicate health,

Elizabeth returned to Greystones.

She then moved to Switzerland for health reasons.

Colonel Burnaby was killed in action

(near Khartoum in Sudan) in 1885.

These are from the archives:

See more also from the archives:

Click HERE to see a timeline for Colonel Frederick Burnaby

and Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed.