Sir,—‘On this day’ (HI 33.4, July/August 2025, p. 7) mentions the film director Rex Ingram (Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock). His father suffered what must be the most dreaded experience for authors. Revd Francis Ryan Montgomery Hitchcock (1867–1951) was a Church of Ireland rector at Kinnitty in the then King’s County. He had also established himself as an author, notable for his The midland septs and the Pale: an account of the early septs and later settlers of the King’s County and of life in the English Pale (Dublin, 1908). In 1916 he sent off his manuscript of The Irish antiquary to Maunsel in Middle Abbey Street. He had no copy and it was consumed by fire, along with so many others’ property in the Rising.
As part of the commemorations for 1916, the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee papers have been digitised in the National Archives, all 6,567 files. Hitchcock’s file bears the number PLC 1/0302. He received no compensation as no valuation could be established, unlike Canon William Carrigan (1860–1924), parish priest of Durrow in the then Queen’s County, whose remaining stock of 160 copies of his The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, published by Sealy in 1905, were lost by fire at Thom’s in Abbey Street. A quantifiable value was given (£180, ‘claim for printed books’, PLC 1/0067), which was granted.
Sadly, Rex Ingram predeceased his father by one year. A photograph of the father—under a straw boater with his son and daughter-in-law—appears in Liam O’Leary’s Rex Ingram: master of the silent film (Academy Press, 1980). Further details can be found in my Laois and Offaly claimants 1916: broken watches, broken dreams (2016), available in Laois and Offaly libraries.—Yours etc.,
JOHN STOCKS POWELL
Portarlington