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Remembered Today:

Lt Edmund Sharrington Davenport RFL


Pat Twomey

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Here's his MIC which confirms commissioning in Jul 1917, sadly the card is not avaiable on ancestry so I can't get his correspondance address

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I will have to wait until during the week to check in the local library for the obit. but I will keep you informed. I did find another hit on the Independent search for Groutage for March 1956 when Mrs Groutage was involved in a bridge competition playing for the Collins Club. However there were no further hits after this date. By the way can you tell me what the MIC tells us and where did you see July 1917?

Best

Pat

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The Irish Times reports the death on 6 June 1933 "Cork Death Mystery" and obituary on 7 June 1933 "The late Captain Groutage".

post-6633-1209317451.jpg

Mark

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Sorry - no obituary, just a brief note on the funeral.

post-6633-1209319251.jpg

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Mark - that's brilliant - thank you for digging around - something distinctly odd about the death.

Pat - the MIC confirms most of we know from elsewhere. In common with most MMGS men, he had not seen service prior to the action on the Somme (w would otherwise expect a 1915 star) The big problem is that I have never found a Gazette Entry for his commision.Although the MIC does give it as Jul 1917, the day is illegible.

Stephen

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Guys - three areas cause me a degree of puzzlement;

One is the address -are South Mall and South Terrace one and the same?

Secondly Groutage is reocrded at Church of Engalnd but St Finbarrs is Catholic; would it be normal for an Anglian to have a pre-burial service (mass) there?

Thirdly - where is Douglas (other than the Isle of Man)?

Stephen

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Thanks Mark and Stephen,

According to the Irish Independent of June 9 1933 the inquest found that the

"...deceased was under medical treatment. Bromidia, a narcotic drug, had been prescribed, and the medical evidence was that death was due to an over dose, resulting in cardiac failure".

I will attempt to locate the grave in Douglas cemetery during the week.

I could only find one hit for the "Bullarch Ignition Co." the company who had a legal battle in court 4 with a Groutage three months prior to the 'death by misadventure'.

http://www.solocheck.ie/FreeIrishBusinessR...GNITION+COMPANY

Pat

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Guys - three areas cause me a degree of puzzlement;

One is the address -are South Mall and South Terrace one and the same?

Secondly Groutage is reocrded at Church of Engalnd but St Finbarrs is Catholic; would it be normal for an Anglian to have a pre-burial service (mass) there?

Thirdly - where is Douglas (other than the Isle of Man)?

Stephen

Stephen,

To try and answer your questions:

The South Mall and South Terrace are two different areas of the city of Cork. My guess would be that the reporter made a mistake and meant South Terrace as this used to be a residential area.

There are many Church of England (Ireland) churches in Cork and it would have been unusual to hold the services in a Catholic church. He may have converted to Catholicism?

Finally Douglas is a suberb of Cork city about three miles from the centre.

I picked up the following from ancestry.co.uk

England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983

about Leonard J Groutage

Name: Leonard J Groutage

Year of Registration: 1927

Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar

Spouse's Surname: Horsman

District: Lambeth

County: Greater London, London, Surrey

Volume: 1d

Page: 275 (click to see others on page)

Is this the same Leonard C Groutage?

On the same website there were phone records for a Leonard Groutage from 1925-1928 this would seem to fit the timeframe as the first reference to Groutage in Cork is June 1929.

I will be able to research further details during the week and will keep you informed.

Pat

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Pat - thanks for digging further

Yes I found one Leonard Groutage running an off-licence but was not sure about the link.

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Googling for bromidia, it appears that deaths from overdose were not uncommon; often linekd to suicide, That said death by misadventure seeems to have been linked to accidental death due to a failure to understand the size of the dose.

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The obituary from the local newspaper on 5/6/1933 reads:

Groutage (Cork) - On June 4,1933, at his residence, South Terrace, Capt. Leonard Charles Groutage, M.C. late Royal Tank Corps. aged 38. Deeply regretted by his sorrowing wife. R. I. P. Funeral leaves South Church at 12.30 o'clock on to-morrow (Tuesday), for Douglas.

There was a report in the newspaper and I will try to put it up later to-night as all I have is a photo-copy of same.

Pat

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The newspaper story from the inquest goes as follows:

An inquest was held and returned a verdict of misadventure. Mrs Mary Lucey Groutage, widow of the deceased told how they were married in December 1919, and her husband was the owner of the 'Cork Installation Co.' Her husband suffered from ill-health owing to service in the Great War. He had been particularly unwell prior to Sat June 3 and stayed in bed late. Later on in the evening they had travelled to Crosshaven (12 miles from Cork) and called at the the Crosshaven for some refreshment. They were misinformed about the last bus home and subsequently had to order a taxi from Cork city.

They arrived home after 2 am on Sunday morning and as it was a cold night they sat by the fire for some time. Mrs Groutage informed the inquest that her husband then retired to bed and she followed shortly afterwards. When she entered the he was in bed and complained of feeling very ill. The doctor was called but Capt Groutage was too ill to be removed to hospital and shortly afterward died at about 4 am. According to Mrs Groutage there was no reason why her husband would take his own life. According to Mr Arthur Mayne Ph. C the dose prescribed was a teaspoonful and any dose over this is dangerous.

Dr Timothy Hegarty deposed that deceased was a patient since 1921 and while the deceased had no organic heart condition the tone of his heart was not good. He also said that the deceased struck him as the last man in Cork to take his own life: he enjoyed life and had everything to live for. The coroner said there was no evidence to suggest that the deceased deliberately took an overdose.

It would seem from the above that Lt Leonard Groutage came to Cork in 1921 shortly after leaving the army and married Mary Lucey Davenport. I have another few leads to chase down and will keep you informed.

Pat

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post-32188-1209411735.jpg

Stephen I have added the newspaper headline, hope it works.

Also from the evidence at the inquest I think we can now discard the Leonard J Groutage mentioned in post number 33.

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Pat - thank you so much for tracking down this news; I must admit that I tend to follow the view of Dr Hegarty

I would guess you are trying to track done the Cork Installation Co

Stephen

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Hi Stephen,

I have made an initial contact with the Church of Ireland cemetery in Douglas and am hoping to check the registry to see if his grave is there. If not I will then attempt to check the cemetery attached to the Catholic Church in Douglas. It would be great to find it. I did check the 'Cork Installation Co' in a local trade directory for 1933 and it gave the following details:

17 Parnell Place:

"Cork Installation Company, Electrical Engineers & Ignition Specialists - L C Groutage Proprietor". The inquest also heard from his wife that he worked briefly on the Sat on a customer's car and finished at 2 pm. I presume he repaired car ignitions - is that what you would make of it Stephen?

Another lead I am looking into is the court case concerning 'Bullarch v Groutage' that took place on March 16 1933.

Pat

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You're doing a storming job Pat; I hope you are enjoying it too

S

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Thanks Stephen I certainly am finding the whole process very interesting particularly how it has been unfolding over the last week. If you want I could send you the rest of the newspaper report by pm. It took about seven photographs to get the whole story copied and I don't want to take up too much space here by posting them all. I already gave a summary of the story that I think captures the main points of the inquest.

Btw I contacted the Church of Ireland in Douglas to-day about the grave of our man and after checking the registry I was informed that no Groutage was buried there. I then contacted the catholic church but a lot of their records were missing and 1933 was in the missing batch. I will call out there over the week-end and see if I have any luck searching around there.

Best

Pat

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Thanx for checking Pat, and glad you are also finding it fasciating

No need to PM me wiht the story, I think you have covered it extremely well

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Pat - great news - the latest release from Ancestry includes Groutage MIC

This is much clearer and confirms Groutage was commissioned on 27 Jul 1917; it also confirms his home address as Short Heath Rd, Erdington, Birmingham

on.... on....

Stephen

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Great news indeed Stephen. Just to recap:

Leonard Charles Groutage

Born: quarter ending Dec 1896

Enlisted??

Cpl up to 27/7/1917 when he was commissioned 2/Lieut. Address at this time Short Heath Rd., Erdington, Birmingham.

Served in France where on Aug 9 he acted in a manner that subsequently saw him being awarded the MC

Married: Mary Lucey Davenport in December 1919

Completed service in army 1/9/1921

Moved to Cork 1921

Business: Cork Installation Company 17 Parnell Place Cork

Died in Cork on 4/6/1933

Buried Douglas Cork

Can you tell me why he was described as Capt. on his obit. and not Lieut.?

Is there any other parts that can be filled in?

Pat

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Enlistment date - I need to access his P File at the National Archives. Stebie said the date on the record was 1914; Based on his service number, that seems a little early. Mid 1915 would be my guess (but I am probably wrong) - it could be he served with another unit first and that is not recorded.

Deployed to France between 14 to 28 August 1916 (pity the MIC does not list it - they often do) and then probably 2IC of one of the tanks deployed at Flers Courcellette.

Assuming he was not injured, he was probably sent back to the Uk for commissioning training prior to being posted to F Bn. Possibly fought at Cambrai (sadly the names of the tank commanders are not recorded) and during the Kaiserlacht. Certainly fought at Amiens.

You are right about the rank of "Captain"; no mention of either acting or temporary rank in the Gazette. May be (like Capt Mannign) he assumed the rank; i am sure eh would have had the ability to carry it off.

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Anyone been sneaking off to the NA today (apart from me....) - L Groutage's file came up "Not available - in use". B*gger, as the say....

I didn't see a Mark IV parked outside, so perhaps not Delta....

By the way, [1914-1922] is a generic WW1 date range, so not necessarily a 1914 enlistment.

Steve.

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Steve - thanks for taking the trouble to look out for Groutage's file. Perhaps we will find out who had it - it's good that some-one was looking!

Stephen

PS I still drive a Mark I and it failed to get over the start line again! Still at least I've resolved the steering problems.

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I may have the answer to the missing files to-day. I requested an estimate for photo-copying certain sections of the service records and maybe they are putting this request together.

On the burial at Douglas front I visited the Catholic cemetery last Sat but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack and I did not have any luck. I spoke to the caretaker in the Church of Ireland cemetery across the way and he said that Lt. Groutage is not buried in his cemetery and if the files are missing in the Catholic cemetery than it is going to be very difficult to locate the grave. I did learn that his wife did maintain an interest in 17 Parnell Place (the location of his business) at least until 1946 but their is no evidence of the Groutage name surviving (in Ireland) beyond Mrs Groutage.

I have found no evidence of a Groutage marriage in Dec 1919 in Ireland but I intend to do a search next Tuesday night and I will let you know if anything transpires. I'm not sure if a similar search can be done in Britain but if someone could it would be most helpful. His wife's surname may have been Davenport as this is the name his Mother in Law gave at the inquest.

Best

Pat

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Pat - I'll see what I can find on Ancestry about a marriage in England -

I had a quick check earlier for an Irish marriage with no luck so I shall look again (this time properly).

Stephen

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