Sir John Lumsden: Owner of Earlscliffe, 1930–1945

Sir John Lumsden (1869–1944) was an Irish physician, Chief Medical Officer at Guinness and founder of the St John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland. In 1930, aged 61 and already renowned for his work in public health and emergency medicine, he purchased Earlscliffe from Ella Webb and made it his home until his death in 1944.

Family history

From Drogheda to Dublin: A Life of Medicine and Public Service

John Lumsden was born in Drogheda on 14^th Nov 1869.

His father was John Alexander Lumsden, a bank manager who had come to Ireland from Scotland via India to work in a bank in Armagh. His father later moved down to Dublin in 1867 to work for the Provincial Banks ¹ and married Florence Isabella Gordon McKean on the 7^th Jan 1869 in Kilkenny.

John's father was a keen golfer and John worked with his father and his brother, Hubert, in setting up a rough and ready golf course in 1885 west of the Phoenix Cricket Club. This became Ireland's second oldest golf club, the Dublin Golf Club, which later became the Royal Dublin Golf Club in 1891. ²

Education and marriage

John Lumsden was educated in Dublin and Taunton. He received his M.B. in 1894 qualifying him as a medical doctor. and his M.D. degree in 1895.

On the 17^th March 1896 he married Caroline Frances Kingscote, a daughter of Major Fitzhardinge Kingscote, of Galway. ^{3 4}

Medical Officer at Guinness

When John Lumsden joined the Guinness brewery as an assistant medical officer in 1894, the company already provided an unusually extensive range of benefits for its employees and their families. These included pensions, sick pay, meals and access to a medical service established in 1870. This welfare system gave Lumsden a strong foundation on which to develop his work in occupational health and preventive medicine.⁵

Lumsden became Chief Medical Officer in 1899. He expanded the medical staff and support services, arguing for an additional physician, a second apothecary, attendants for the men's and women's waiting areas, a porter and a messenger. A new dispensary opened in 1907, followed by a dental department in 1915 and a physiotherapy clinic in 1917.⁶

His work increasingly extended beyond treating illness. Faced with recurring tuberculosis and other health problems amongst workers, Lumsden investigated the conditions in which employees and their families lived. This led to his major survey of workers' homes in 1900 and the housing reforms discussed below.

List of Residents/Owners

St. John Ambulance Brigade

Dr Lumsden had a number of additional roles in his early years, such as senior visiting physician on the staff of Mercer's Hospital in Dublin and in 1902 was the Principal Medical Officer to the Commissioners of Irish Lights. ^{3 11}

However, one additional change he made in his work as Chief Medical Officer at the Guinness Brewery proved a turning point for Dr Lumsden, for Guinness, and for helping and saving many lives in the future.

In his post as Medical Officer, Dr Lumsden was asked to provide first-aid classes for employees at the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate. The classes became so popular that they later became the first registered division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland, which Dr Lumsden founded in 1903 and became the first Commissioner. He remained Commissioner until his death.¹⁰

The Brigade was involved with many major events in Irish history, including treating casualties from the clashes during the General Strike of 1913 (sometimes referred to as the Dublin Lockout). However, the Brigade became prominent in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916. ^{12 3}

List of Residents/Owners

First World War

During the first world war, hundreds of wounded were shipped over to Ireland. Within two days of the outbreak of hostilities, Dr Lumsden had 70 of the men who had trained in the St. John Ambulance brigade reporting to the Royal Naval Sick Berth at Chatham. Three months into the war, he also got the brigade to set up three auxiliary hospitals (at Temple Hill Blackrock, Monkstown and Mountjoy Square) to cope with the wounded that came in on hospital ships at Dun Laoghaire and Cork. ³ He was also appointed on the first management committee of the Leopardstown Park Hospital in September 1917.²⁶

In 1917 and 1918 Dr Lumsden was a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps.³

For these acts and his formation of the St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland Dr John Lumsden was knighted for each by King George V and became Sir John Lumsden KBE. ⁷ At the same time Dr Ella Webb was awarded an MBE. ¹⁴

List of Residents/Owners

Move to Earlscliffe

In 1930, at the age of 61, Sir John bought Earlscliffe from the sister of his good friend and colleague Dr Ella Webb.

Earlscliffe was the Lumsden's summer residence as at the time he also had a property in 4 Fitzwilliam Place where he had a medical practice on the first floor. He used to rent out Earlscliffe in the winter months (October to May). ²⁷

At that period, the house was mostly surrounded by fields (see image). There were a few houses behind it on the upper road (what is now the old Carrickbrack road), but the gardens in general were not very developed

See "Earlscliffe in the time of Sir John Lumsden" for further information about life at Earlscliffe in the 1930s.

Family and home life

Sir John and Lady Caroline Lumsden's had one son followed by five daughters.

The son, John Fitzhardinge Lumsden, was born in 1897 and at the age of 22, moved to the United States where he later married Dorothy Sheridan Wilson in 1922 in Pennsylvania. They would eventually settle down in Pennsylvania and their daughter, Margery, spent a memorable year at Earlscliffe in 1935-6.

See "Margery Stratton - Life at Earlscliffe in 1935-6 for some wonderful memories of her time with her grandparents.

Sir John's daughters were Leslie, Norah, Margery and twins, Nancy and Betty.

In 1933, his daughter, Margery was married in Howth and had her reception at Earlscliffe.

We have copies of some of the wedding photos here.

Sir John's working and social life at Earlscliffe

Still working in Dublin

Although Sir John Lumsden was already in his sixties when he moved to Earlscliffe, he did not retire from public or business life. He continued to commute into Dublin each day, and according to "Guinness 1886-1939. From Incorporation to the Second World War", he did not officially retire until 1944. ²³

Sir John's life and work were also mentioned in numerous books and articles.

See Sir John Lumsden - articles or references in books

Social life at Earlscliffe

During the summer months, Sir John and Lady Lumsden hosted many social gatherings at Earlscliffe. The photographs below give a glimpse of these events, with guests gathered on the lawn, taking tea, relaxing in the garden and, in one image, practising putting.

Further examples can be seen here: Photo set 1 and Photo set 2.

Opening the gardens for charity

The Lumsdens also joined with other houses in the area to open the Earlscliffe gardens to the public for charitable causes. For example, on July 25^th 1936 the gardens were opened in aid of the Jubilee Nurses’ Pension Fund. The notice stated:

Jubilee Nurses' Pension Fund. To-day (Saturday)-Dublin (2 to 6 p.m.)...Lady Lumsden, Earlscliffe, Baily (entrance to Garden 1s., which includes Tea.)
-Irish Times, 25^th July 1936 ²¹

Budgerigars and the aviary

Sir John was also an avid collector and breeder of budgerigars. He kept an aviary outside Earlscliffe and won many competitions with his birds. ²²

Sir John's death

Sir John died on the 3^rd September 1944. His funeral was attended by over a thousand people. ²⁴

His wife, Lady Caroline Frances Lumsden, later moved to a house near Sutton railway station. Earlscliffe was sold to William Martin Murphy and his wife, Norah, on the 25^th September 1945. ⁴

Lady Caroline died five years later in 1950 ²⁵

Next chapter: William Martin Murphy

References & Further Reading

1. Sport supplement; Golfing Log By Dermot Gilleece, the Irish Times, 7 December 1996 ↩
2. "The Royal Dublin Golf Club website". See also https://www.theroyaldublingolfclub.com/history-and-tradition/timeline seen 2^nd Oct 2021. ↩
3. Irish Times obituary, September 4, 1944 ↩
4. Title deeds and other legal documents that are currently in the possession of Karen Foley ↩
5. Taken from Guinness® History of Philanthropy | Guinness® seen 2^nd Oct 2021 ↩
6. From "Guinness 1886-1939: From Incorporation to the Second World War" by S. R. Dennison and Oliver MacDonagh ISBN:  1859181759 ↩
7. As discussed in "The Goodness Of Guinness" by Tony Corcoran, published in 2005 by Liberties Press ISBN 0-9545335. See The Goodness of Guinness and also see 'Knighthood for Dr John Lumsden', Weekly Irish Times, 8^th June 1918, page 2. ↩
8. From the national Archives: Household Schedule of Returns, South Earl Street, 1901, as discussed in in "The Goodness Of Guinness" by Tony Corcoran, published in 2005 by Liberties Press ISBN 0-9545335. See The Goodness of Guinness ↩
9. See also St John Ambulance Ireland ↩
10. As mentioned in “Lumsden, Sir John", by Cathy Hayes, Dictionary of Irish Biography,  https://www.dib.ie/biography/lumsden-sir-john-a4917 ↩
11. Margery L. Stratton "Remembrances of a young American Girl", a document sent by Margery to David Foley and partly reproduced on this website ↩
12. Irish Times report, described in the book “A ‘Peculiar’ Place: The Adelaide Hospital, Dublin 1839-1989”, David Mitchell, 1990, Blackwater Press, ISBN 0 905471 16 4 ↩
13. See the entry in https://www.thepeerage.com/p19226.htm#i192260 ↩
14. In an article in the Irish Independent, July 13, 1939, page 7 "Call for more transfusion", Sir John Lumsden talked about the importance of being a blood donor at an annual ceremony for the Dublin Blood Transfusion Service where he gave out badges to donors. It was interesting that in an article the previous year (Irish Independent, August 26, 1938 page 10), it was stated that many of the donors came from the unemployed "and the vast majority from working people". The president of the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (R.C.S.I), William Doolin, thought that this was unfair as these people had "burdens enough on their shoulders as it was". He was seeking more donors from the "more leisured and well-to-do classes". ↩
15. As discussed in St John Ambulance Ireland ↩
16. The links to the St. John Ambulance Brigade in Ireland can be found in the web pages of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service here: History of Blood Transfusion ↩
17. The National Archives of Ireland ↩
18. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_Ambulance_Brigade_of_Ireland  ↩
19. Irish Statute Book, No. 206/1939, Irish Red Cross Society Order, 1939, see https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1939/en/si/0206.html ↩
20. 'Court and Personal', Irish Times, 25^th July 1936, page 8 ↩
21. An article in the Irish Independent, November 16, 1939, page 7, describes the annual show of the Yorkshire Canary and Cage-bird Society of Ireland which was held in the Gregg Hall, Dawson Street, Dublin and was opened by Sir John, who was the president of the society. He also won three prizes for his blue, cobalt and white budgerigars. ↩
22. "Guinness 1886-1939. From Incorporation to the Second World War", S.R. Dennison and Oliver MacDonagh, Cork University Press, ISBN-10: 1859181759, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guinness-1886-1939-Incorporation-Second-history/dp/1859181759  ↩
23. Irish Times, September 6, 1944, page 3 ↩
24. See https://www.thepeerage.com/p19226.htm#i192259 ↩
25. From the book "Leopardstown Park Hospital 1917-2027. A Home for Wounded soldiers", by Eoin Kinsella.Amazon link (last seen 2^nd Aug 2024) ↩
26. This was confirmed by an advertisement in the Irish Times dated September 20^th 1930 where there was "a comfortable, furnished house to let October to May; three receptions, six bedrooms, etc., electric light, telephone, garage; sheltered, lovely southern view. Apply Lumsden, Earlscliff, Baily." ↩