Edward Lee

Edward 

Lee 

Model Employer and 

Man of Moral Courage 

By MICHAEL LEE 

Model Employer and Man of Moral Courage 

1

2





By MICHAEL LEE

The earliest known photograph of Edward and Annie Lee taken 6 September 1886.





By MICHAEL LEE

Edward Lee 


© Michael Lee 2016 

mikelee2653@gmail.com 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be 

reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrievable system, 

or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, 

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without 

the prior permission of the 

copyright holder. 

Cover photographs. 

Top. 

Edward Lee’s first shop at No 2, Goldsmith Terrace, Bray. 

Annie Lee in the 1920s. 

Middle. 

Edward and Annie with their four sons (circa 1906). 

Granite pediment, Edward Lee & Co. Ltd, Dún Laoghaire. 

Bottom. 

Edward Lee & Co. Ltd, Dún Laoghaire (circa 1940s). 

Bray Urban District Council 1906. 

Portrait photograph of Edward Lee ( circa early 1920s). 

All photographs Lee archive. 

ISBN 978-0-9956091-0-5 

Produced by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council 

Designed, printed and bound by Concept2Print

Contents 

Foreword by Pádraig Yeates 6 

Preface 8 

Acknowledgements 10 

Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath 12 

John Wesley 13 

Tyrrellspass 1853 14 

Edward Lee & Co. 1885 16 

Social Conscience 19 

The Grange 23 

America and Canada 1904 26 

Benefactor 34 

1913 Lockout 35 

Sir Hugh Lane 42 

Bellevue and Home Rule 44 

The Great War 1914-1918 46 

Town Tenants League 50 

The Sinking of the RMS Leinster 51 

A Place in the Sun 53 

1920s and 30s 55 

An Honest Christian Man 60 

Appendix: Memoranda of a Hurried Visit to America and Canada 1904 63

Foreword 

Edward Lee was a Protestant, a Unionist and a Freemason, someone who 

would automatically have been dismissed as a stereotypical pillar of the 

British establishment in Ireland until recently. But one of the benefits of 

the current ‘Decade of Centenaries’ has been a greater public willingness 

to engage with and understand people and events from our past. I am not 

talking about the ‘shared’ history, or meaningless ‘inclusivity’ that mars 

many official commemorations, but a willingness to look at our historical 

legacy from fresh and better informed perspectives. Edward Lee is an 

important Dublin figure from the early twentieth century, deserving of 

reappraisal and this excellent biography by his great-grandson Michael 

Lee amply will repay the reader’s curiosity with interest. 

Reading it, one of the phrases that jumped off the page for me, was Lee’s 

belief in, ‘A good day’s pay for a good day’s work’. It did so because one 

of his contemporaries, Jim Larkin, the founder of modern Irish trade 

unionism had a similar saying; ‘A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’. 

Regrettably, it is also one of Larkin’s least cited quotes. But this shared 

belief helps explain why it was possible for one of Dublin’s leading 

employers to break ranks with his class and make repeated attempts to 

end the Dublin Lockout of 1913. It was proof that even at the height of 

Ireland’s bitterest industrial dispute, when the employers’ leader William 

Martin Murphy was determined to smash Larkin’s infant Irish Transport 

and General Workers Union, there were capitalists willing to compromise 

with labour’s militant new leaders. 

As the author points out, Lee was a deeply moral individual who believed 

he had responsibilities to the society in which he lived, regardless of its 

political complexion. This belief was central to everything he did, even 

while ‘fumbling in the greasy till’ to make a few bob. He introduced a 

weekly half-day off for staff a quarter of a century before it was made 

mandatory by the 1912 Shops Act and, as Chairman of Bray Urban District 

Council, he presided over an ambitious public housing programme for 

poorer residents. He continued this policy by subsequently providing 

8 

Edward Lee

accommodation for his own employees in Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire). It 

was this belief in fairness that enabled people such as Lee and Larkin to 

become champions in their different ways of social progress. Of course 

other employers, including Murphy, considered themselves moral men 

too, but it was a public morality worn as a carapace to impress the 

world, within which they devoured their enemies, including ‘disloyal’ 

employees. A problem Lee never appears to have experienced. 

He began life as a Liberal Unionist, yet always regarded himself as an Irish 

patriot, like many of his 92,000 co-religionists in Dublin city and county. 

This deeply held pride in all things Irish led him to join with Murphy 

and other business leaders in organising the International Exhibition 

of 1907 to showcase Irish industry. He saw the development of new 

enterprises as the only antidote to emigration which, in his own words, 

was ‘slowly bleeding the country white’. It also saw his views evolve 

towards accepting the concept of Home Rule and then the establishment 

of the Irish Free State. On the way, he saw three of his four sons serve in 

the British army during the Great War. Two did not come back and the 

third only did so after being seriously wounded. It is hard for us today 

to conceive of the legacy of suffering that conflict inflicted, not alone in 

Ireland but across Europe. It would blight the lives of Edward Lee and his 

wife Annie until their deaths. This book throws fresh light on their lives 

and their world that deserves a wide readership from all those interested 

in our past, present and future. 

Pádraig Yeates 

Model Employer and Man of Moral Courage 9

Preface 

Except for a few family stories, some correct and some which proved 

to be inaccurate or simply untrue, my brother Edward and I knew very 

little about our great-grandfather Edward Lee and his life and times. The 

story was simply never mentioned in the family. I really believe that our 

own father, Edward knew practically nothing about his grandfather. 

Edward Lee’s other grandsons, John and David, also seemed to know 

little. Perhaps at the time it was all too painful, especially for the two 

surviving sons, Edward (Ted) and Tennyson, to talk about the old family 

because that would inevitably mean talking about their two brothers, Joe 

and Robert Ernest, both of whom had been killed in the Great War. Their 

loss was an enormous tragedy for the family and something from which 

they never really recovered. 

Edward and Annie Lee had created a successful drapery business out of 

nothing but hard work and a will to succeed. The family and the business 

shone brightly for an amazing but brief time, a time that encompassed 

enormous upheavals in society both at home and on the world stage. 

During all that period, Edward Lee had a vision of his ideal of what both 

society and business should be. Although it was perhaps both quixotic 

and utopian, it was a wonderful ideal. However, it was Edward’s family 

that took centre stage throughout his life When the two boys died in the 

Great War, something in the old couple died too. You can see it in the later 

photographs of Edward and Annie, the light in their eyes slowly dimming. 

After their deaths in 1927 and 1938 respectively, the business carried on 

through the decades up to its eventual demise in the late 1970s when the 

light flickered one last time and finally died too. 

My older brother Edward took on a huge amount of the research and is 

tenacious in his endeavours to find out more. I, on the other hand, have 

a particular interest in the Great War and the story of the two ‘lost boys’, 

Joe and Robert Ernest. Their loss was a devastating blow for Edward 

and Annie and, I believe, fundamental to an understanding of their 

subsequent lives. Now, with the benefit of modern research methods, we 

10 


are gradually piecing the family story together. However, as with most 

research, the more we find out, the more there is left to discover. Then 

there are those haunting, faded family photographs, all taken with the 

light of the sun over one hundred years ago. They are so tantalising - 

shadows long disappeared - each face looks directly at us, eye to eye, 

willing us to know their names. You can almost hear them shouting out 

from the depths of the past. Even with the best of modern technology, 

it is simply not possible to identify more than a handful of family and 

friends. We know they are there, we can almost talk to them, but who 

are they? It is most likely that at this remove, we will never know. And 

finally, there are those beautiful and moving family letters that Edward 

sent to his youngest son Tennyson during the Great War. Full of sadness, 

affection and hope, but most of all – love. 

Michael Lee, September 2016 


Acknowledgements 

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in particular Marian Keyes, 

Senior Executive Librarian, dlr LexIcon. Marian suggested the idea of an 

exhibition on my great-grandfather Edward Lee, for dlr LexIcon. He would 

have very much approved of this jewel of knowledge in Dún Laoghaire. 

The library’s emphasis on education and learning for all, would have 

struck a chord with the ‘governor.’ It has been a great pleasure to have 

worked with Marian on the project. She has been a good friend and the 

guiding force to see it through. 

Terry de Valera. (A Memoir. Currach Press, 2004). Some years ago I was 

fortunate to meet and talk with the late Terry de Valera and he was most 

generous with his memories of his mother Sinéad de Valera and Annie 

Lee at Bellevue. 

Philip Lecane. (Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster. Periscope 

Publishing, 2005). A best ‘pal’ and the man who knows more about the 

Leinster tragedy than anyone. Philip was kind enough to read my early 

manuscript and gave me great advice which improved it no end. 

Stephen McCormac, Archivist, Royal Hospital, Donnybrook. With grateful 

thanks to Stephen, who was kind enough to trawl through the RHD 

archives. He filled in some missing pieces on Robert Ernest Lee. 

Tadhg Moloney. Another ‘pal’. Thanks Tadhg for the information on 

Captain Robert Ernest Lee, Royal Army Medical Corps at Hill 60, Ypres 

in 1915. 

Philip Orr. (Field of Bones. An Irish Division in Gallipoli. Lilliput Press, 

2006). Historian and friend. Thanks Philip for Rev. Robert Spence’s 

poignant description of finding Joe Lee’s remains. 

Pádraig Yeates. (Lockout Dublin 1913. Gill and Macmillan, 2000, 2013). 

Enormous thanks to my friend Pádraig, author of quite simply the best 

12 


ook by far on the 1913 Dublin Lockout and the man who originally put 

me onto my great-grandfather’s story. For this, the Lee family are most 

grateful. 

Edward Lee, my big brother and Ursula Lee, our late mother, who had the 

foresight to understand the importance of the family history, saved the 

photographs and most importantly, told us the stories. The late John Lee, 

who generously gave me the precious letters of his grandfather, knowing 

that this was a story worth telling and Ishbel Lee, who understands what 

I have tried to do. David Lee, who has been most helpful and Sally Dunne 

Lee for her support. 

Richard Howlett and the team at Concept2Print including Eliane Pearce 

and Olivia Hearne for their great design skills. 

Thanks also to, Karen D’Alton, Alyson Gavin, Patrick H. Lynch, Niall 

Martin, Peter Pearson, Michael Pegum, Eugene Ryan, Colin and Anna 

Scudds, Tim Carey and Nigel Curtin. With gratitude to Aaron Binchy, 

Librarian, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Glenn Dunne, National 

Library of Ireland and Pearl Quinn, Stills Librarian, RTÉ. 

This book is dedicated to: Margaret, Edward E, Susan, Pamela, Thomas, 

Jennifer, Christopher, Edward F., Nicholas, Stephen, Cameron, Jordan, 

Freya, Isabella-Rose and Edward Samuel. In memory of Andrew 

Frederick, Edward (Dad) and Ann. 


Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath 

The village of Tyrrellspass lies in the south of Co.Westmeath, 

on the main Dublin to Galway road. It takes its name from the 

Tyrrells, who arrived with the Normans in the 12th Century. 

The family were originally from Tirel, now called Triel on the north 

bank of the Seine, not far from Paris. Hugh Tirel was one of the Norman 

soldiers who arrived with Strongbow in 1169. The name Tirel eventually 

became Tyrrell. After dispossessing the O’Dooley clan of their lands, 

the Tyrrells took possession of the Barony of Fertullagh. Over the next 

four hundred years, the Tyrrells consolidated their hold on the whole 

area by building fortified castles. The most important was Tyrrellspass 

Castle, built around 1410, at the narrow south-westerly end of the village. 

Tyrrellspass is situated in the middle of a bog. At the time, the whole 

area was virtually a swamp. Travel was difficult and perilous and the 

village was the only place of refuge for travellers. The ‘pass’ part of its 

name comes from the fact that throughout the centuries, the village was 

defended by the Tyrrells. Richard Tyrrell, a descendant of Hugh, was the 

victor of the Battle of Tyrrellspass in 1597. This battle, against the forces 

of Lord Mountjoy, the Lord Lieutenant, took place at Ballybohan, north 

of the village and was a complete victory for the Tyrrell forces. However 

with the coming of Cromwell to Ireland, the Tyrrell strongholds were 

destroyed in 1649. 

The next family to influence the lives of the inhabitants of Tyrrellspass 

were the Rochforts. They were a wealthy and powerful family of French 

origin, who originally settled in Ireland in 1243. The Westmeath branch 

of the family was descended from Prime Iron Rochfort, a Lieutenant- 

Colonel in Cromwell’s army. His grandson, Robert, became the first Earl 

of Belvedere and much of the town of Tyrrellspass and surrounding area 

came into the possession of the Rochforts. The last Earl of Belvedere 

married the daughter of James McKay, a Protestant clergyman in 1803. 

14 


Jane, who would become Countess of Belvedere, was born in 1775. 

When the Earl died in 1814, Jane hired a King’s council, Arthur Boyd, to 

establish her title to the estate. This he did and he also won Jane herself. 

They married in 1816 and named their son George Augustus Boyd. The 

present village was laid out by the Countess. A village green was created 

where originally there had only been a swamp. The beautiful crescent 

of Georgian houses was also constructed, as was the courthouse, the 

Protestant school and the Methodist chapel. The Countess was known as 

a kind and caring landlord, noted for looking after the welfare of her 

tenants. When she died in 1836, she left a vastly superior village which is 

the Tyrrellspass we know today. In 1846, the Rochfort name was added 

and the family were known as Boyd-Rochfort. 

John Wesley 

John Wesley and his younger brother Charles founded Methodism 

during the second half of the 18th Century. Originally it was a 

movement within the Church of England, where men and women 

met to study the Bible, pray together and encourage each other in 

their faith. Essentially a working class movement, Methodism appealed 

to people who felt they didn’t have the fine manners or clothes to go to 

regular church services. Because of this, Methodist preachers realised 

that they needed to go out to the ordinary people. This was known as 

‘field preaching’, where the preacher would set up in village greens or 

market places or anywhere he could attract an audience. Many poor Irish 

peasants, listening to their words of salvation, responded positively to 

the Preachers’ message that God was also concerned for them and their 

condition. 

On the 9th August 1747, John Wesley visited Ireland for the first time, 

landing at George’s Quay, Dublin. In all, Wesley made twenty one visits 

to Ireland between 1747 and 1789. On one tour in August of 1762, Wesley 

arrived in Tyrrellspass. In his diary he noted, ‘Aug 2, Sun. I baptized 

Joseph English (late a Quaker), and two of his children. Abundance of 

people were at Tyrrellspass in the evening, many more than the house 


15

could contain. At five in the morning one who had tasted the love of 

God but had afterwards relapsed into his former sins, nay and sunk 

into Deism, if not Atheism, was once more cut to the heart’. 1 His brother 

Charles Wesley, later described his own impression of what he saw, ‘the 

people of Tyrrellspass were wicked to a proverb, swearers, drunkards, 

sabbath breakers, thieves from time immemorial. But now the scene is 

utterly changed’. 2 

Tyrrellspass 1853 

Edward Lee was born 27th March 1853, the eldest son of Edward 

Lee and Hannah Bagnall, a farming family who lived in the 

townland of Cornahir, Tyrrellspass. The other children were 

Eliza, Robert, Annie, Joe, Pamela-Harriet, William and Mary, also known 

as Molly. The Lees were Wesleyan Methodists and were of modest means, 

but not poor. Little is known of Edward’s early life, but it is likely that 

he attended the local Protestant school in Newtownlow. He was well 

educated, although his later education, if any, is still to be discovered. As 

the eldest son, it would have been natural that Edward would work on 

the farm alongside his father and the rest of his family, eventually taking 

it over. However, this ambitious young man had other plans and began 

work as an indentured assistant draper, most likely in Tullamore. 

Eventually, in the late 1870s, with £100 he had saved and with 

some money, most likely from his mother Hannah Bagnall, Edward left 

Westmeath to make his way in the world. But he would hold Tyrrellspass 

dear all his life. For many years, Edward Lee was remembered locally 

as the young man who went to Dublin and became wealthy. On 25th 

July 1878, he married Annie Sheckleton from Dungar Co. Offaly, in the 

Methodist Church in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. It is possible that the young 

couple had first met in Tullamore where Annie may also have worked. 

There is little doubt that Edward’s future success would be due to this 

1 The Ninth Part, Section Two (John Wesley’s Irish Tour 1762) 

2 Ibid. 

16 


Tyrrellspass Green 1900s. Photo was probably taken by Robert Ernest or Joe Lee. 

Turf Cutting near Tyrrellspass, 1900s. 

Farming in Tyrrellspass 1900s. 


17

happy partnership. Annie, born 20th March 1859, was the second daughter 

of eight children of George Sheckleton and Mary Anne Carrey of Dungar 

Park, Roscrea. The Sheckleton family were members of the Church of 

Ireland. Edward and Annie moved to No.2 Goldsmith Terrace in Bray, Co. 

Wicklow, where Edward had been living at this time. Their first child, 

Edward Sheckleton Lee, was born in the house in 1879. Interestingly, the 

name Sheckleton became Shackleton around this time and both Annie 

and her first born, would use the new spelling from then on. The reason 

for this change is not known. 

Edward Lee And Co. 1885 

During this period, Edward was learning about the drapery 

trade. By 1883, he was manager of Penrose Bowles and Co, 

General Drapers and Outfitters, 89 Lower Georges Street, 

Kingstown, (Dún Laoghaire). He gained much experience in the business, 

all of which he would soon put to good use. It was probably at this time 

that he realised that good trade was to be had in coastal towns, linked 

by railways. In 1885, Edward and Annie decided to strike out on their 

own. They opened their first shop Edward Lee and Co, on the ground 

floor of their house at No 2. Goldsmith Terrace. This was quickly followed 

by another shop in Kingstown the same year. The original location of the 

shop was at 7, 8, 9 Anglesea Buildings, Upper Georges Street. In 1906 the 

shop relocated to the corner of Upper Georges Street and Northumberland 

Avenue, into a purpose built premises, now occupied by Dunnes Stores. 

This beautiful building, with its red brick and granite façade is one of the 

architectural ‘gems’ of Dún Laoghaire. It was designed by Kaye-Parry and 

Ross, who also designed the Carnegie Library in the town. Today there 

are still traces of Edward Lee and Co. on the building. Above the corner 

at the junction of the two roads, there is a granite pediment with EL&Co 

Ltd. carved in relief. The shops operated on the ‘Cash Only’ system, ‘ONE 

PRICE! PLAIN FIGURES! SMALL PROFITS! CASH!’ This business model 

was a success. 

18 


Edward Lee and Co Ltd 

Dún Laoghaire (1940s). 

No 2 Goldsmith Terrace, 

Bray Co Wicklow. 1900. 

Edward Shackleton Lee about 1890. 

Robert Ernest Lee about 1890. 

Letterhead. 


19

Edward and Annie had nine children: Edward Shackleton, known as 

Ted, George Johnston (born 1880), Robert Ernest, known as Ernest (born 

1883), Hastings (born 1884), William (born 1885) Joseph Bagnall (born 

1888), Annie (born 1891), Alfred Tennyson, known as Tennyson (born 

1892) and quite a bit later, Geoffrey Patrick (born 1906). Sadly, in a time 

of high infant mortality, five of the infants died soon after birth, including 

their only daughter Annie. Tennyson was the youngest of the surviving 

children and was doted on by his mother. A typical Victorian middle class 

woman, Annie loved poetry. Her favourite poet was the Poet Laureate, 

Alfred Lord Tennyson. He died on the 6th October 1892. This was also 

the day that the new Lee child was born. In honour of the famed poet, 

Edward and Annie named their new son Alfred Tennyson Lee. All the 

children were baptised in Bray Methodist Church, on Florence Road. The 

church was only a few yards from the family home and the family were 

regular attenders there, Edward Lee even presiding at religious meetings 

from time to time. 

The boys were pupils at St. Andrew’s, a Presbyterian school in Bray. 

To his four sons, Edward was known as the ‘governor’. But this was only 

out of respect for his status as their father. Indeed, what shines through 

in his later letters to Tennyson is the love and affection he had for his 

family. This paternal attitude was extended to his dealings with his 

employees. In 1893, Edward Lee was admitted into the Grand Lodge of 

Ireland Freemasons. A southern Unionist, Edward was also a fiercely 

proud Irishman. The business grew rapidly and in the next few years 

shops were opened in Rathmines and Mary Street in Dublin. A wholesale 

warehouse and offices operated from Abbey Street and, not forgetting 

his roots, Edward Lee also opened a small shop in Tyrrellspass. As the 

Bray store became more successful and required more space, the family 

moved to No.2 Wyndham Park Road in 1901. This was a solid middle 

class, Edwardian, red bricked, terraced house and quite a step up from 

living over the shop in Goldsmith Terrace. In 1904, the business became a 

private limited company. The Board of Directors was appointed from the 

managers of the various shops. 

20 Edward Lee

Social Conscience 

Edward Lee was an astute and shrewd businessman, but he also 

possessed a strong social conscience and was always concerned 

for the welfare of his staff, his principle being, ‘a good day’s pay 

for a good day’s work’. 3 To this end, in 1889, he initiated a half day holiday 

for all his staff on Thursdays, later changed to Wednesdays on foot of the 

Shops Act, 1912. He was the first employer in Ireland to do this. He firmly 

believed that the working day should be shortened if possible and said, 

‘Where long hours are worked on Saturdays some compensation should 

be given by concession on another day of the week and therefore in itself, 

it was but an act of simple justice’. 4 He also initiated a system of profit 

sharing for all his employees. ‘The bonus, or rather, profit sharing system, 

is my highest ideal of what a business ought to be’. 5 He was concerned 

with the desperate plight of the less well off and to this end he entered 

local politics in Bray. He was elected a member of the Bray Urban District 

Council (UDC) in 1900 on the Unionist ticket. In the council elections of 

1903, he topped the poll with 303 votes. In a newspaper article in 1903, 

the following was noted: ‘Mr. Lee has been upon the side of the people 

invariably and there is no member of the community who will not give 

him credit for the tenacity with which he has held to his democratic 

convictions. He has been consistent in his efforts to abolish slumdom 

and to enable the workingmen of his town to enjoy decent and sanitary 

homes. On many political questions we were not in accord with Mr. 

Lee, but upon the great question of the uplifting of the masses and the 

amelioration of their condition we find Mr. Lee far more advanced than 

many with whom we agree in politics’. 6 In 1906, at the instigation of Lord 

Powerscourt, he was made a Justice of the Peace (J.P.). 

As a member of Bray UDC, Edward Lee actively promoted the erection 

of houses for the working people of that town, believing that, ‘it is the first 

duty of the council to have the poor properly housed’. 7 Housing schemes 

3 Wicklow Newsletter. 19/2/1927 

4 Unattributed newspaper clipping in Lee family archive, on the occasion of Edward 

and Annie Lee’s silver wedding anniversary in 1903. 

5 ibid 

6 ibid 

7 Irish Times. 3/10/1905 


21

Bray Urban District Councillors 1906, on 

completion of first phase of Purcell’s Field 

housing scheme. Edward Lee centre with key. 

The Suburban Club, Florence Road, Bray. 

Purcell’s Field (now Connolly Square) Bray. 


at Dargan Street in Little Bray and near the Town Hall were an early 

example from his tenure as Chairman of the Public Health and Artisans 

Dwelling Committee. In 1908, he was elected Chairman of Bray UDC. 

It was noted by Councillors that, ‘Mr. Lee was a broad-minded liberal 

gentleman, who had rendered yeoman service to Bray in his advocacy 

of schemes for the better housing of the working classes and his services 

deserved this recognition’. 8 

One of Edward Lee’s finest achievements was the Purcell’s Field 

housing scheme of 1906-1908, now Connolly Square and St. Kevin’s Square. 

He invited Lord Aberdeen, the Lord Lieutenant, to inspect the dwellings, 

proudly telling him ‘the accommodation was absolutely unique and the 

situation fit for a mansion’. 9 Lord Aberdeen was suitably impressed. 

‘A good day’s pay for a good 

day’s work.’ 

On his election as Chairman of the Council in 1908, Edward Lee said, 

‘I had merely taken a humble part in the advancement of schemes for the 

better housing of the working classes, but that, I was willing to do as a 

humble worker in the ranks’. 10 He was proud of the attitude taken by Bray 

UDC members who had elected him Chairman saying, ‘that every section 

of creed and every form of political thought should act in so handsome a 

manner as the majority of the Council has done towards me’. 11 However, 

in September 1908, his Chairmanship of Bray Urban District Council was 

objected to by a gentleman called John Sloane, who said that Edward 

Lee was no longer a resident of Bray and was now residing in Stillorgan. 

The objection was upheld and he was ‘accordingly struck off’ 12 the Bray 

Parliamentary Revisions list. 

On 6 th October 1908, at the Bray Technical Schools Reunion of Students 

and Friends, the Rev. Mr Glenn proposed a vote of thanks to Edward Lee 

for presiding. Rev. Glenn was upset by the mere technicality which had 



10 Irish Independent. 5/2/1908 


12 Irish Times. 15/9/1908 


23

deprived Bray of Edward Lee’s services on the Council and Mr. Joseph 

W. Reigh J.P. said, ‘some gentlemen who were not able to face Mr. Lee in 

the open gave him a stab in the back’. Edward Lee calmly replied that, ‘It 

had been done by a gentleman who was perfectly entitled to do it and I 

had no reason to complain’. 13 However, it is most likely that Edward felt 

betrayed and sad upon his retirement as Chairman in December of that 

year. He would never again seek to be elected to any public office. It was 

not surprising. But it was arguably a great loss to the community that he 

did not get involved in local politics in Kingstown. Probably he had had 

enough of council politics. If he could not deliver for his fellow citizens, 

what was the point? 

‘The bonus, or rather profit sharing 

system is my highest ideal of what a 

business ought to be.’ 

In 1911, Edward Lee was appointed to the Commission of the Peace for 

the County of Wicklow, attending the Bray Bench. While in Bray he had 

donated £100 towards the equipping of the library in 1910 and had paid for 

renovations to the Methodist Church. He also donated a house on Florence 

Road for the formation of a club for people in trade. The Suburban Club as 

it is known, is still in existence in the same house today. Edward Lee was 

elected the first president. He was a man who held strong opinions on 

many subjects, especially on business, local and social issues. He was not 

afraid to take a stand on anything he felt was unfair. For example, some 

years earlier, the threatened closure of Kynochs Explosives Factory in 

Arklow in 1907 had been seen as an attempt by English rivals to transfer 

the business to England. At the Bray UDC meeting of June 4 th 1907 there 

was much heated discussion on this topic. Edward Lee as a man of fair 

play and an Irishman was indignant on the matter, ‘It would be nothing 

short of a public disgrace if this attempt to ruin Arklow were persisted in. 

This was an occasion on which Irishmen of all classes should join and say 

to English intriguers, hands off this industry’. 14 

13 Freeman’s Journal. 7/10/1908 



The Grange 

By the early 1900s, the Lee family had moved from Bray into 

an imposing mansion on the Stillorgan Road in Co. Dublin. 

The Grange was a large and beautiful house with extensive 

grounds, all enclosed behind a high wall. Parts of the wall and some 

traces of the estate cottages still exist today. They can be seen from the 

main Stillorgan Road at the junction for Brewery Road. The family would 

live here until 1914. The years at The Grange would turn out to be the 

happiest the family would spend together. It must have been a magical 

place for the young boys. Photographs of the time show a family with 

all the attendant privileges of a prosperous middle class. The extensive 

grounds contained a small boating lake, dairy, croquet lawn and a tennis 

court. A typical Edwardian scene, with tennis matches and afternoon tea 

in the garden listening to Sir Edward Elgar and Count John McCormack 

on the new cylinder gramophone. Although they employed a gardener, 

Edward and Annie Lee were themselves keen gardeners and won prizes 

at local garden shows for their produce. The staff included a butlerchauffeur, 

two housemaids, a cook and, for a short time, a nanny for 

Patrick, the youngest son, who would sadly die within months of his birth 

in 1906. There was also a companion for Annie Lee. Annie Cosgrave, a 

Roman Catholic and a Wexford woman, had originally worked for the 

Darley Family. The Darleys had lived in The Grange until 1901 and it 

would seem that Annie Cosgrave had stayed on to work for the Lees. 

Annie Cosgrave would spend the rest of her life as a respected member of 

the Lee household. 

The two eldest boys, Edward ‘Ted’ Lee and Robert ‘Ernest’ Lee, 

attended Wesley College in Dublin and the younger two, Joseph Bagnall 

Lee and Alfred ‘Tennyson’ Lee, were boarders at Epworth Methodist 

College in Rhyl, North Wales. Edward and Annie loved to entertain at 

The Grange. There was a grand ballroom where dancing and parties took 

place. Sometimes the Lee boys would help and act as waiters. In 1903, 

Edward and Annie’s silver wedding anniversary was celebrated there 

with a wonderful party for family, friends and Lee’s employees. The 

highlight was the presentation of a beautiful framed illuminated address 

from all the staff of Edward Lee & Co. 


25

Edward Lee (standing extreme right) and extended family. Powerscourt. Edwardian picnic. 1906 approx. 

Robert Ernest and Annie Lee 

left of picture, with relatives 

at the Grange. 

Nanny with Baby Geoffrey 

Patrick and Annie Lee, 1906. 

Royal City of Dublin Hospital, (Baggot St) 

Resident Staff 1909-10. Robert Ernest Lee 

(sitting second from right). 

The Grange, 

Stillorgan Road 

1900s. 

Extended family gathering 

at the Grange. Circa 1906-8. 

Law Students.King’s Inns 1909-10. 

Joe Lee (sitting centre.). 

Left to right, Edward ‘Ted’, Annie Lee, Tennyson, 

Unknown, Unknown, Joseph, Edward Lee 

enjoy afternoon tea listening to Gramophone 

in The Grange garden circa 1906. 

26 


Silver Wedding Illuminated scroll 1903. 


27

The four brothers attended Trinity College. Robert Ernest graduated 

as a medical doctor and Joe also attended the King’s Inns studying to be 

a barrister. Ted trained as an accountant and would become the firm’s 

secretary. Tennyson, the youngest, gained an M.A. and would also 

eventually enter the family business. The family now attended St Brigid’s 

Church of Ireland in Stillorgan. Although all the family, except Annie, 

were Methodists, there was a gradual transfer to the Church of Ireland. 

In 1907, Edward Lee was involved in the Irish International Exhibition 

as a member of the Executive Council of Exhibits and Space Committee. 

The successful businessman William Martin Murphy was also involved 

as a vice-president. Edward and Annie were presented to their Majesties 

Edward VII and Queen Alexandra when they visited the exhibition. 

Never forgetting his roots, Edward Lee brought 300 family, friends and 

neighbours, at his own expense, from Tyrrellspass up to Dublin to visit 

the exhibition as his guests. They were all treated to lunch and a tour 

of the exhibition before returning home by train. Interestingly, a few 

years earlier, in March 1904, Edward Lee as a member of the Dublin 

Mercantile Association had proposed a motion to consider the holding 

of an International Exhibition in Dublin in 1906. 15 It is most likely that he 

had decided to travel to America in 1904, with this idea in mind, to see for 

himself how this could be achieved. 

America And Canada 1904 

Edward Lee was a proud and patriotic Irishman. He loved 

his country and would promote Ireland and its people at 

every opportunity. He was a firm believer in his fellow 

Irishmen and women. ‘Ireland is a country endowed with so much 

natural beauty, fertile resources and above all with such a talented 

and splendid people’. 16 His love for his country and his concern for 

his fellow countrymen, especially in what he saw as the scourge of 

emigration, is well described in his Memoranda of a Hurried Visit to 

15 Irish Times. 11/4/1904 

16 Irish Times. 24/12/1904 


America and Canada 17 which he published privately on his return from 

the month long visit in May and June 1904, accompanied by his good 

friend Robert Reid Thomson. It was dedicated to his friend, ‘With very 

sincere regard to my fellow-traveller and friend, tried and true, R. Reid 

Thomson, Esq’. This publication is reproduced in full in the Appendix. 

Travelling from Queenstown in Cork on the train, he described the 

landscape and his sadness for the people he saw through the carriage 

window. He was also wistful about his own boyhood memories, ‘The 

pasture lands of Kildare and the bogs of King’s County are replaced by 

the Queen’s County hills to the left. Memories of my boyhood days crowd 

in upon me, as a holiday of some few days I spent there in years gone by 

still marks time on my memory. Perhaps no land can produce greater 

diversity of creed and character than Ireland. Pathetic was the scene at 

Portarlington, where the observant Irishman and others may have seen 

the life-blood of the nation slowly bleeding the country white in the tide 

of emigration, which has not been stemmed for even one decade, since its 

first flow nearly fifty years ago’. 

‘Ireland is a country endowed with so 

much natural beauty, fertile resources 

and above all, with such a talented 

and splendid people.’ 

Although the two men were travelling in luxury to New York on the 

White Star Liner RMS Oceanic, he was not immune to the plight of the 

steerage passengers, noting sadly, ‘Alas, for human hopes! One of our 

fellow-travellers in the steerage died this evening quite suddenly. The 

touch of Nature which makes the whole world kin was immediately 

felt, as evidenced by the expression of sympathy heard on all sides. The 

poor fellow who was travelling all alone will be committed to the deep at 

8.30 tomorrow evening over 1000 miles from his no doubt dearly loved 

country, for he was an Irishman’. However his sense of equality was 

shaken the next day when he was informed that at the funeral service, 

‘State-room passengers were not allowed to be present’. 

17 Memoranda of a Hurried Visit to America and Canada by Edward Lee 


29

As the Oceanic glided up the Hudson River towards the port of New 

York, Edward’s wonderment at the new sights he was witnessing was 

evident, ‘Its sky-scrapers, you have to see them to believe, from 20 to 32 

stories in height is quite usual’. However he was not as taken by Central 

Park. Again the Irishman, proud of his country, writes. ‘What a poor 

show compared with our magnificent Phoenix Park’. Travelling on to 

Philadelphia, the two friends were impressed with Independence Hall 

and the home of William Penn, the founder of the state. The two men 

visited the Baldwin Loco Works and were amazed by the industry there, 

turning out 2,000 locomotives a year. They continued on to Washington, 

where they discovered that commercial rates for the city were very high. 

This fact, no doubt, struck a chord with the businessman and councillor 

in him. His only comment being, ‘a cry we are not unused to at home’. 

In Washington, Edward and Robert attended a Sunday religious 

service at the Eleventh Street Block ‘K’ Church where they ‘heard a 

good address and some good singing, my friend and myself being the 

only white persons present’. Later however, the two men, on entering a 

railway car, were puzzled by a card at one end on which was written the 

single word ‘WHITE’. They soon realised that it was a notice to keep the 

‘whites’ and ‘coloureds’ separated. His only comment on this apartheid 

was, ‘and so it is ordained here’ - an oddly resigned remark perhaps, 

considering his fight for social justice and equality at home. It implies a 

certain, if uncomfortable, acceptance of this overt injustice. He was not 

in Ireland now, he was just a tourist and he had no influence in the New 

World. The next stop was Louisville, Kentucky, and although he admired 

the wonderful scenery he observed on the train journey, his natural bias 

towards his beloved Ireland again seeped through in his observations. 

‘But however beautiful, the fine homesteads of the old country have no 

counterpart in this’. Arriving in city of Louisville on Tuesday evening, 

May 31 st , the two friends made their way to the Seelbach Hotel. At the 

reception desk, the two men were approached by a newspaper reporter 

from the Louisville Courier Journal, seeking an interview with them. 

Seeing as they were from Ireland, the reporter implored the two men, ‘to 

tell him a story, but to no effect. We were not to be drawn’. 

The two travellers were amused by the persistence of the journalist. 

Edward noted, ‘the newspaper reporters of this country are very versatile 

gentlemen. This gentleman, who only overheard a remark made by my 

friend at the office on going to register, construed it into a good length 


paragraph in the next day’s issue of the paper he represented’. The article 

appeared the next morning in the On Dit column of the Louisville Courier. 

It contained all the stereotypical stage Irishness that one would expect 

from an American’s idea of the Irish at that time, 

‘Faith and he has the face of Tim Harrington, our own Lord Mayor,’ 

cried R. Reid Thomson and Edward Ahl [Lee] in concert, as they walked to 

the desk at Seelbach’s Hotel last night and gazed upon the countenance of 

H.M. Secor, the night clerk, who became confused under the affectionate 

glances and winced visibly before the two Irishmen. ‘You must excuse 

us if we gaze too steadily,’ continued Mr. Ahl, [Lee] the spokesman, ‘but 

it carries us all the way back to Dublin to look on your face. We are 

travelling 10,000 miles.’ The two Europeans are typical of their race and 

the Irish brogue was broad in their speech. They have amassed a fortune 

by constant application to business and in the prime of life they decided to 

visit America. Both are greatly pleased with America and from Louisville 

they will go to the Exposition at St. Louis’. 18 

They might have been greatly pleased with America, but it would be 

interesting to know how they felt at being lampooned. I would imagine 

the two gentlemen had a good laugh about it. The two companions 

were now off to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. What Edward would 

see there would, no doubt, inform his thoughts and ideas for the Irish 

International Exhibition in Dublin a few years later. However, Edward 

was none too impressed with what he saw, ‘It was apparent that too 

much was attempted by even so great a nation as America, that more 

concentration of effort on half of the space would have brought better 

results’. He was particularly upset with the Irish exhibits. 

‘We made our way to what was intended to be a representation of 

the Bank of Ireland, but oh, what a farce to place before the Americans 

as a representation of the noble pile of buildings in College Green, 

our old historic Houses of Parliament. Why is Ireland to be always 

handicapped? Here we have her exhibits almost at the entrance of the 

Exhibition, detached from all others and a quarter dollar extra to be 

charged for seeing them. One is really puzzled from a businessman’s 

point of view, whether it is an effort to help Irish Industries, having as 

auxiliaries a restaurant concert hall, side shows, etc., or is it the other 

18 Courier Journal, Louisville. June 1 st 1904 (Note: Edward Lee writes that he is 

probably responsible for the mistaken Ahl (Lee) surname ‘not having written my 

name as carefully as I might in the Hotel register’.) 


31

way about, helping the side shows, restaurant, concert hall, having Irish 

manufacturers as auxiliary and subsidiary. One felt indignant to see our 

finest street in Dublin, Sackville Street, outraged in such a fashion, a street 

of scarcely ordinary width, narrow side paths, paved with cobble stones, 

no sign of tram lines or indeed of life at all, a hideous nightmare of what 

the street could never come to’. It was not all bad though and both men 

were impressed by what they saw next. ‘We passed through the Buildings 

of Agriculture and Horticulture. The former was the most magnificent 

show I have ever seen’. 

Later, the two men called on a gentleman from Ireland who was about 

their own age. The man said that he, ‘regretted the day he came to this 

country, although occupying what seemed to us a very good position and 

for which he said he got big money, still the conditions of life were so far 

behind the old country as to make him regret leaving it’. 

The month long journey continued to Chicago. Edward realised the 

city’s importance to business, but was uneasy about the great wealth 

that could be amassed by an individual. He said ‘as a city of commercial 

importance I quite see it stands in the front rank, if not first in the front 

rank, in America and would doubtless give an enterprising young man 

five opportunities for one he would have in the old country of winning 

wealth, if that was his only goal’. This is an interesting comment by 

Edward Lee and goes some way towards explaining his philosophy of 

life. As a man of strong moral beliefs, having wealth acquisition as one’s 

primary aim would not sit well with him. Chicago as a place to live did 

not appeal to either gentleman. 

Tuesday 7 th June found Edward Lee and R. Reid Thomson at Niagara 

Falls. This time the two friends were genuinely impressed. ’About five 

minutes’ walk from the hotel brought us to the bank to see the Rapids above 

the Falls and oh! What a sight. The great St. Lawrence River, unequalled 

I should say in the world, staid, stately and placid, a few hundred yards 

above, is now preparing for its tremendous leap to the bed below. On it 

comes, gathering strength and velocity, the very embodiment of supreme 

power and grandeur, while the final leap baffles the descriptive power of 

any pen. Although we have had opportunities of seeing some of America’s 

great rivers, the Hudson, Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio, this 

one, for beauty, grandeur and strength, far out classes them all’. 

It is likely that Edward Lee had been influential in the decision of 


his nephew Robert H. Gilbert 19 to emigrate, along with his mother Mary 

and sister Violet, to America in May 1908. Robert would end up living 

in Buffalo, New York, working on the streetcars. In time he would go 

on to organise the Niagara Frontier Bus and Streetcar Employees’ Union, 

eventually becoming its president. Did his uncle Edward give him advice 

about the opportunities he saw for a young man in the New World? We 

will never know, but it is most likely that he did, given Edward’s love of 

family and the idea of bettering one’s self. It is also quite a coincidence 

that young Robert should start his new life in Buffalo, close to Niagara 

Falls. 

After breakfast on Wednesday June 8 th , Edward and Robert Reid 

Thomson headed for Toronto. Not having been entirely at ease with 

American brashness, Edward wrote, ‘the Americans certainly have a way 

of putting themselves en evidence that no ‘old worlder’ can match’. The 

two men were much more comfortable in Canada. ‘We are soon under the 

British flag again. The country seems different, their manners different 

and to our way of thinking, more in accord with old world sentiment’. 

Diplomacy was obviously another of Edward’s traits. His impression of 

Toronto was positive. ‘The ‘strenuousness’ of life in other cities we have 

seen, is nowhere apparent, in fact home life here is well exemplified’. 

A highlight of their time in Toronto was a visit to the T. Eaton Co., 

founded in 1869 by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from Clogher, Co 

Antrim. The T. Eaton Co. became one of Canada’s most successful retail 

stores, with branches across the country. Of major interest to Edward Lee 

was the fact that Eaton had pioneered the ‘cash only’ system of retailing. 

This, of course, was also the way Lee's transacted business, albeit on a 

much smaller scale. But there were other parallels with the two men. Both 

were quiet, private individuals with strong moral characters, a strong 

work ethic and a wish to succeed. Both men were religious and pursued 

a fair-minded and generous approach to their employees. Edward Lee 

was genuinely excited by what he saw. ‘We marvelled at the enormous 

streams of people passing in and out - not all necessarily customers’. 

It would be interesting to know if Edward Lee had been influenced by 

Timothy Eaton’s pioneering retail innovations years earlier while setting 

up his own business. 

19 Robert H. Gilbert, born in Bandon, son of William John Gilbert and Edward’s sister, 

Mary (Molly). 


33

After visits to Montreal and Quebec, it was back to Boston for the two 

men and then on to New York, where the two friends dined at Delmonico’s 

before heading for the return journey home. The sea voyage on the White 

Star Liner RMS Cedric was for the most part uneventful and the diary 

entry for Thursday June 16 th 1904 simply states, ‘a very enjoyable day 

and passed without incident of any note, ship taking a straight course 

eastward, about 1,000 miles south of Ireland. Weather still warm and 

fine’. Back in Dublin on that very day, an incident of a very definite note 

was occurring which would forever after have a profound influence on 

world literature. A young man had just plucked up the courage to ask a 

certain young woman out for the first time. The man in question was, of 

course, James Joyce and his sweetheart was Nora Barnacle. 16th June is 

now celebrated as Bloomsday. 

On the morning of Wednesday June 22 nd , the Cedric docked in 

Queenstown (Cobh), Co Cork. Edward was glad to be back in Ireland. 

‘What a feeling of thankfulness took possession of me as I took refuge in 

a bed in the Old Country and while I think the journey worth the money 

many times over, I can well understand that one is not fully repaid till he 

experiences the luxury of coming home again’. He was acutely aware, 

that this luxury was not available to most Irish people and sadly observed 

the poor and the wretched as they carried their few possessions and 

children towards, what they hoped, would be a better life. ‘The Teutonic is 

just visible inside the harbour, waiting to convey to the New World many 

who will never see the Old Land again’. 

The next day, whilst waiting for the train in Cork, he decided to take a 

walk down Patrick Street, noting the people along the way. ‘I was glad to 

see the kindly faces of my own countrymen again and to be where the same 

‘knock aside everyone in your way’ principles do not obtain’. Although he 

could be accused of being overly sentimental in his observations, it must 

be remembered that his publication was originally written only for his 

close friends and family. For all his business acumen and his concern for 

people’s well-being and his genuine love of Ireland, most precious to him 

was his family. He fondly wrote, ‘I now close the memoranda of my visit 

as I leave Portarlington Station at 4.45pm, hoping to reach before sunset, 

the fairest and best spot on earth to me – Home’. 


Cluster of skyscrapers, New York. Circa 1900. 

Publisher, Detroit Publishing Co. Source, Library of Congress 

via Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection. 

King Street looking West, Toronto. 

1900s. John Chuckman Collection 

- Vintage Toronto Postcards 

Agriculture Building, World Fair, 

St. Louis. c. St. Paul: R. E. Steele, 

1904. Source, Library of Congress. 

Print showing bird’s-eye view of 

fairgrounds at the St. Louis fair. 

Drawn by C.N. Dry. Source, 

Library of Congress. 


35

Benefactor 

Edward and Annie Lee were benefactors to many good causes 

and charities and both were life governors of The Royal 

Hospital for Incurables in Donnybrook where their son Robert 

Ernest was Resident Medical Officer, 1912-13. The business had subscribed 

three guineas a year to the hospital from 1900, eventually increasing the 

subscription to five guineas. This annual donation would continue long 

after Edward and Annie’s deaths. Donations were also made to Baggot 

Street and Jervis Street Hospitals and many other institutions and causes. 

Edward Lee was a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the 

Dublin Mercantile Association. He had extensive business interests and 

was a Director of Dublin Distillers and the Mining Company of Ireland. In 

1910 he built houses at the back of Lee’s shop in Dún Laoghaire. Named 

after the birthplace of ‘one of the best women in the world - his wife’, 

Dungar Terrace was a lovely little street with beautifully designed terraced 

houses, all rented out for a modest sum. The cost of this development 

was £7,000, a very large sum at the time. But this all accorded with 

Edward’s social principles. ‘They had tenants in Dungar Terrace from 

Dublin, Rathmines and Rathgar. He thought the houses were wanted in 

Kingstown. They expended a great deal of money in building, but they 

only asked for a small return on their capital’. 20 

In an article entitled ‘Leading Kingstown Traders’, published in The 

Freeman’s Journal on the 17 th May 1913, Edward Lee was again held up 

as a caring and progressive employer. ‘One establishment in particular 

stands out boldly, a commercial watchtower in itself, jealously guarding, 

as it were, its companions in trade; its house-flag flying and proclaiming 

to all and sundry that these are the premises of Edward Lee and Co. Ltd. 

What an asset such progressive firms are to a township like Kingstown 

may be judged from the fact that within a few years Messrs. Lee have 

erected in brick and mortar alone property of the estimated value of 

£26,000, truly a marvellous march of commercial progress for one firm 

alone. This may be in one sense, however, understood when we consider 

the unfailing devotion to work and loyalty of the staff to an employer, who 


36 


certainly, as such, has no rival in the three kingdoms and who, we believe, 

so ungrudgingly devotes his best interests at all times to their welfare. Not 

by any means the least claim to notoriety by Messrs. E. Lee and Co. Ltd, 

is the fact that the firm 25 years ago, voluntarily gave their assistants the 

half holiday, the subsequent cause of so much argumentative legislation 

years afterwards’. 21 

DUNGAR TERRACE 1910. 

1913 Lockout 

The Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) was 

founded in Dublin by James Larkin in 1909. It was set up on 

socialist principles, to help change society in favour of the 

working class and to give unskilled workers political and industrial clout 

and bargaining power with the employers. However, the employers saw 

Larkin and his union as a threat. Under the leadership of William Martin 

Murphy, owner of the Irish Independent and the Dublin Tramways 

Company, matters came to a head on 15th August 1913, when Murphy 

told his staff in the despatch department of the Irish Independent, that if 

they joined the union they would be fired. As the workers were dismissed, 

the dispute escalated. The tram drivers stopped work and were also 

21 Freeman’s Journal. 17/5/1913 p11 


37

Locked Out Workers outside ITGWU (Irish Life 1913). 

Reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. 

Edward Lee. 

Jim Larkin. 

Tom Kettle. 

William Martin Murphy. 

James Connolly. 

Edward Lee Letter Irish Independent 

23 September 1913. 

38 Edward Edward Lee Lee

dismissed. The employers held out, locking out the employees until such 

time as they agreed to sign a pledge not to join the ITGWU. On Sunday 

31 August, crowds turned out on Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) 

to hear Jim Larkin speak. As the police moved in to arrest Larkin, there 

was a baton charge. There were many injuries and public opinion was 

shocked at the scenes in Dublin. James Connolly, socialist and founder 

of the Irish Citizen Army, also became involved, closing the port of 

Dublin. Meanwhile, the families of the locked out men suffered extreme 

deprivation. 

Edward Lee was deeply concerned with the deteriorating situation 

and with the terrible consequences for the families of the locked out men. 

He was also concerned about the effects of the strike on commerce in 

general and, as a pragmatic businessman, on his own business too. There 

is no record of his personal thoughts about Jim Larkin or James Connolly. 

But he disagreed with the tactics of William Martin Murphy. Edward 

Lee was not the only moderate employer in disagreement with Murphy. 

Alexander Hull, a builder and James Shanks, who had been involved 

in the Lord Mayor’s conciliation attempt, were also unhappy with the 

employers’ strategy. However, Edward Lee was the only one apart from 

James Shanks, who publically broke ranks with Murphy and the other 

employers. 22 In a letter to the newspapers, 23rd Sept 1913, Edward Lee 

addressed both employers and workers, trying to find a compromise 

between them. It was, to his way of thinking, ‘an ideal realisable’. A plea 

to both sides, his letter continued, ‘The workers must give up the baneful 

doctrine of ‘tainted goods’ and the consequent ‘sympathetic strike’. ‘The 

employers should withdraw the pledge requiring their employees to 

cease to belong to the Transport Workers’ Union. To my way of thinking 

such a pledge is an unfair interference with the personal liberty of the 

worker, though I am sure the employers did not intend it as such’. 

This letter once again clearly shows his respect for working people, 

whilst diplomatically chiding the other employers. ‘Employers ought 

rather to seek to elevate those whom they employ than to inflict an 

indignity on them’. 23 But Edward Lee was also careful to appear to be on 

side with his co-employers at this point and he avoided lecturing them by 

a skilful use of language: words like ‘should’ and ‘ought’ being used as a 

moral imperative to persuade the employers towards a change of heart. 

22 Yeates. Lockout Dublin 1913 

23 Irish Independent/ Freeman’s Journal. 23/9/1913 


In contrast, unusually for him, his tone to the workers is more in keeping 

here with the employer class, saying the workers ‘must’. He was treading 

a fine line, trying to find a middle ground, reaching out to the workers 

while not alienating himself from the chamber. 

James Connolly was interviewed by the Freeman’s Journal the next day 

about Edward Lee’s suggestion for a conference to break the deadlock. 

He did not agree. ‘My complaint about Mr Lee’s letter is that he appears 

to wish both sides to give way at the outset on the very points that are 

alleged by both sides to be in dispute. We are quite willing to let things 

remain as they are both sides in a state of armed neutrality as it were, 

towards each other and to discuss these points and any other points that 

may be brought up’. 24 Ironically perhaps, the employers also disagreed. 

J. Doyle writing to The Irish Independent on 30 th Sept stated, ‘Can Mr 

Lee or any other person tell us how, without such an assurance, any 

employer can be reasonably expected to continue to invest his capital in 

a business the fate of which is practically at the mercy of the insolent and 

unscrupulous strike boss who has recently enunciated the doctrine: ‘Do 

away with the employer and there is no need for a strike’. 25 But Professor 

Tom Kettle, one time Member of Parliament for East Tyrone and Home 

Rule supporter, was in agreement with Edward Lee. In the Freeman’s 

Journal, 24 th September 1913, he wrote, 'It seems to me the time has come 

to call a truce. That is the desire of every Dublin man who loves Dublin. 

The letter yesterday of that model employer Mr Edward Lee, the common 

tenor of conversation lead us hopefully to that haven. A middle course 

must and shall be found. Mr. Lee has spoken for the business world of 

Dublin, facts accumulate upon the facts in the direction of peace’. 26 (Kettle 

died not long afterwards at the Battle of the Somme, September 1916.) 

‘Employers ought rather to seek to 

elevate those whom they employ than 

to inflict an indignity on them.’ 

A man of strong principles, Edward Lee joined the Dublin Industrial 

Peace Committee. He was the only employer to do so. The committee, 



26 Tom Kettle, Freeman’s Journal. 24/9/1913 


under the chairmanship of Tom Kettle, included writer Pádraig Colum 

and future 1916 Rebellion leaders, Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph 

Plunkett. In 1966, Plunkett’s sister Geraldine, was interviewed by RTÉ 

television about her brother and his political and revolutionary activities 

during The Rising. She also spoke about Joseph’s 1913 involvement with 

the Peace Committee. ‘He took no part in anything until the 1913 strike. 

There was a Peace Committee got up by Tom Kettle and he got all sorts 

of other people into it. Frank Skeffington and Willie Yeats was in it and 

the Dean of St. Patrick’s and one employer, Edward Lee. They were 

exactly the kind of people as you would find in such a thing today. They 

tried to make peace between the two sides and of course the employers 

immediately labelled the Peace Committee as pro labour and refused to 

have anything to do with it’. 27 

At a meeting of the Peace Committee in the Mansion House on Tuesday 

7 th October, 1913, a resolution was put by Professor. E.P. Culverwell. It 

stated that it was time for a truce to be declared between the employers 

and workers so as to save the trade of the city of Dublin from ruin and 

its inhabitants from starvation. 28 Edward Lee supported the resolution 

saying, ‘Fortunately or unfortunately he represented the employing class 

and, of course, they would give him credit for saying that he was not 

going to say anything prejudicial to that class that night. He was glad to 

notice that there were some other employers also and a good many of 

the employed. We came here as brothers in the City of Dublin. We are 

not going to go into the merits of the case. What the resolution means, 

I suppose, is that terms will be suggested from this meeting that may be 

brought to both employers and employed to try to bring them together 

to settle the dispute in a manner that may leave no feelings of animosity 

behind. I am prepared to work night and day to give all assistance I 

possibly can, so that this unfortunate dispute may be brought to an end’. 29 

‘Men of Capital ought to be ashamed to 

have it go out to the ends of the earth 

that so many families were living each 

in one room.’ 

27 On behalf of the Provisional Government – Joseph Plunkett RTÉ 1966 

28 Irish Times. 11/10/1913 

29 Irish Times. 8/10/1913 


41

Another meeting of the Dublin Industrial Peace Committee was held 

in the Mansion House at the end of October. Edward Lee felt that there 

were wrongs on both sides, but his anger was reserved for his fellow 

employers. ‘Men of capital ought to be ashamed to have it go out to the 

ends of the earth that so many families were living each in one room’. 30 

With this emotional statement, Edward Lee, hoped to force the capitalist 

and employer class to look closely at themselves, to examine their 

consciences and the morality of what they were inflicting on workers and 

their families. As President Michael D. Higgins recently stated, ‘There is 

no limit to what courageous people can do if they have ‘moral courage’. 31 

Edward Lee was courageous and he had ‘moral courage’. Unfortunately 

many of the ‘men of capital’ didn’t and they seemed to be impervious to 

Edward Lee’s plea and to the misery they were inflicting. The war would 

continue, morality was just another casualty. Ultimately, however, the 

Dublin Industrial Peace Committee failed in its endeavour to bring peace. 

When the Dublin Chamber of Commerce met on the 29 th November, 

Edward Lee proposed a motion to be put to the Monday meeting, ‘That 

this meeting of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce whilst determinedly 

opposed to the principle of sympathetic strikes, with their attendant 

disastrous effects to employers and workers are of the opinion that the 

employers, in the interests of peace and goodwill, ought to withdraw 

the agreement they asked their workers to enter into in respect of the 

Irish Transport and General Workers Union, which the workers consider 

infringes their personal liberty’. 32 

The motion was totally unacceptable to Murphy and an alternative and 

opposite motion was drafted by Richard Jones, a supporter of Murphy. In 

the event it was now decided that the issue would be fudged and neither 

motion was put to Monday’s meeting, effectively silencing what was seen 

as capitulation. Edward Lee was incensed and decided to go public with 

his resolution anyway. Writing to the Irish Times, he published the text of 

his motion, pointing out that, ‘One of the objects for which the Chamber 

is constituted is to promote the commercial, manufactures, shipping 

and carrying interests of the City of Dublin and to take cognisance of 

and investigate such matters as affecting the commerce, manufactures, 

shipping and carrying trade of Ireland generally, must necessarily 

30 Irish Times. 1/11/1913 

31 Michael Lyttleton Memorial Lecture. June 2013 Q&A Session 

32 Weekly Irish Times. 6/12/1913 


influence those of the metropolis’. 33 

It would seem that Edward Lee was becoming a lone voice within 

the chamber and increasingly isolated in his opinions. We don’t know 

what sort of relationship if any, there was between Lee and Murphy at 

this time. Dublin was a small city and the business community would 

have been close knit. Were they on cordial or even friendly terms before 

the Lockout? They would probably have met socially from time to time 

and they would have had dealings together regarding the 1907 Irish 

International Exhibition. As both men were members of the Dublin 

Chamber of Commerce, they would have met at meetings on various 

occasions. No record exists about their personal relationship, either 

during or after the strike. But it seems fair to surmise that relations 

between them remained frosty at the very least. Nonetheless, although 

Lee and Murphy were in total disagreement as to how to deal with the 

Lockout, Edward Lee respected Murphy’s business acumen and services 

to the industrial life of Ireland. When in February 1915, almost two years 

after the Lockout, the Chamber of Commerce honoured Murphy with 

a portrait of himself painted by Sir William Orpen and an illuminated 

address signed by over 410 business people, Edward Lee was one of the 

signatories. However, he did not attend the presentation to Murphy, nor 

did he send an apology for his absence. 34 

No employee of Lee’s & Co. Ltd. was ever locked out. Interestingly, 

Maeve Cavanagh, who was employed in the millinery department of 

Lee’s, Rathmines, was also a member of the Irish Citizen Army. (Maeve 

changed the spelling of her surname so that it would appear more 

Irish.) Her brother, Ernest Kavanagh, was an employee of the ITGWU 

and political cartoonist and had supplied cartoons for the Irish Labour 

movement. His depiction of William Martin Murphy as the ‘Demon of 

Death’ had outraged Murphy and his supporters. Maeve was also writing 

articles and poems for the Workers Republic and helping to organise fundraising 

concerts for Larkin. She also raised funds for James Connolly’s 

rifle fund and remembered getting all her drapery friends from Lee’s and 

other drapery shops, to attend dances and concerts in aid of the fund. 35 

It is not known what Edward Lee’s attitude would have been towards 

33 Irish Times. 2/12/1913 


35 Witness statement by Mrs MacDowell (Maeve Cavanagh). Bureau of Military 

History 1913-21 Doc No. W.S. 258 (Military Archives) 


43

Maeve’s Irish Citizen Army activities while an employee of the business. 

Maeve was arrested during Easter Week and taken from the Rathmines 

premises, so he was obviously aware of her membership of the I.C.A. 

During Roger Casement’s trial, Maeve asked her employer’s permission to 

travel to London with a petition. She was granted leave to go. 36 As a large 

employer, Edward Lee would no doubt have been kept informed as to his 

staff’s political activities by the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It is probable 

that he turned a blind eye to the activities of some of his staff, but we will 

never know. Ernest Kavanagh was shot dead outside Liberty Hall on the 

morning of the 25 th April, 1916. Maeve would be employed by Edward Lee 

and Co. Ltd., until her retirement in 1956. 

Sir Hugh Lane 

As the drama of the Lockout was being played out on the main 

stage, other interesting events were taking place in the art 

world. Sir Hugh Lane, a nephew of Lady Augusta Gregory 

and a major collector of French Impressionist art, was determined to 

have a new permanent home for his collection – a gallery worthy of 

Dublin and the Irish people. In 1907 he had successfully lobbied Dublin 

Corporation to make available No 17 Harcourt Street as a new Municipal 

Gallery, to house his paintings. However, this location soon became 

inadequate for his growing collection and Lane now pushed for a new 

purpose built gallery. His preference was for it to be located on the site 

of the Ha’penny Bridge, over the River Liffey. Plans for this were drawn 

up by the eminent architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. In November 1912, 

frustrated with Dublin Corporation’s indecision on the matter, Hugh Lane 

informed the Lord Mayor that unless a suitable site was agreed forthwith, 

he would remove his paintings from view the following January. Lane’s 

ambitious plan for the proposed site also met with opposition from the 

business establishment. There was much heated discussion in the papers 

and both William Martin Murphy and Edward Lee became involved in 

36 Military Archives: WMSP34REF10925MAEVEMCDOWELL page 29 


the controversy. Ironically perhaps, on this one issue Murphy and Lee 

were in agreement. They both opposed Lane’s plan, along with most of 

Dublin’s business community. Murphy denounced the gallery proposal 

as a waste of taxpayer’s money. In his opinion, it would be of no use at 

all to the common people of Dublin. He used his newspaper, The Irish 

Independent, to oppose the scheme at every turn. 

Meanwhile, Edward Lee joined the Central Highways Committee. Its 

stated aim was to secure ‘the construction of a suitable bridge for both 

vehicular and pedestrian traffic at the point where the Metal Bridge now 

stands. While fully appreciating the value, educational or otherwise, of 

Sir Hugh Lane’s gift, the Committee thought that both the Art Gallery and 

the vehicular bridge could be secured without inflicting injury on any 

section of the citizens’. 37 Whilst making no comment at all on the gallery 

one way or the other, Edward Lee was also in favour of a central highway 

bridge. ‘All men who had an interest in the commerce of the city ought 

to help forward the scheme, they would be looked upon in the future as 

benefactors of the city’. 38 Outwardly, the Central Highways Committee 

were espousing the value of Lane’s gift and were seemingly less philistine 

towards it. ‘They, as a society, were not primarily concerned about 

what was to be done with the pictures’. 39 But in reality they were just as 

opposed to Lane’s plan as Murphy and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce 

and were equally determined to see Lane’s dream sink to the bottom of 

the Liffey. 

The committee felt that some other suitable site could be found for 

the Municipal Art Gallery, but not over the river. Cold commerce would 

triumph over ‘this folly bridge’. 40 This slight to Sir Hugh Lane was to 

have far reaching consequences. Angered by the city’s rejection, Lane 

decided to bequeath his valuable paintings to The National Gallery of 

London. However, he changed his mind again and wrote a codicil in 

his will, returning the paintings to Dublin. Unfortunately, this change 

was not witnessed. On the 7 th May 1915, the Lusitania was returning to 

Southampton from New York, when it was torpedoed off Kinsale. The 

ship sank in minutes and there was great loss of life. One of the casualties 

was Sir Hugh Lane. His priceless collection of Impressionist Art is now 

shared between Dublin and London. 

37 Irish Times. 12/8/1913 

38 Ibid. 

39 Ibid. 

40 Ibid. 


45

Bellevue and Home Rule 

In early 1914, the family moved from The Grange to a smaller but 

equally beautiful house, Bellevue, on Cross Avenue in Blackrock, 

Co. Dublin. Edward and Annie entertained friends in the large 

ballroom. They now attended the Church of Ireland parish of St. Philip 

and St. James’ on Cross Avenue, at some stage changing from Methodists 

to Anglicans. Although the Lees were of a Unionist background they 

were pragmatic, not political. It is probable they saw that change was 

coming and would now have been somewhat supportive of the aims of 

John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party regarding Home Rule. 

‘All lines of demarcation amongst 

Irishmen should cease with the 

passing of the Home Rule Bill.’ 

With the passing of the Home Rule Bill, there was extensive discussion in 

the papers regarding the importance of ‘associating with the civic life of 

the metropolis’. Interviewed by the Freeman’s Journal in November 1914 

about this, Edward Lee remarked, ‘The articles are sound and patriotic 

and I have read them with much interest. I cordially agree with the 

suggestion that all lines of demarcation amongst Irishmen should cease 

with the passing of the Home Rule Bill and that no man, because of his 

political views he held, should be debarred from entering public bodies 

and receiving the highest honour in the gift of the municipality’. 41 



‘Bellevue’, Cross Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. 


47

The Great War 1914-1918 

When the Great War broke out in August 1914, the Lee 

family supported the British war effort and three of the 

boys joined the colours. Robert Ernest Lee had been 

working as house doctor in Bootle Hospital in Liverpool. He joined the 

Royal Army Medical Corps, as an army doctor. In early 1915, with the 

rank of Lieutenant, he was sent to France with the 14 th Field Ambulance, 

5 th Division. He would spend the next four years in France and Flanders, 

trying to save lives during some of the worst fighting. After his bravery 

under fire at the infamous Hill 60, outside Ypres in May 1915, he was 

promoted to Captain. 

Joseph and Alfred Tennyson were also very keen to join up. After all, 

the general consensus was that it would be ‘over by Christmas’. Joe was 

practicing as a barrister on the North-West circuit and Tennyson was a 

student. Both were members of Trinity Officers Training Corps and both 

were commissioned as 2 nd Lieutenants in the 6 th Royal Munster Fusiliers. 

This was a ‘Kitchener battalion’, part of the first 100,000 volunteers. 

After almost a year of training the 6 th Royal Munster Fusiliers were sent 

to Gallipoli as part of the 10 th (Irish) Division. The whole Division was 

virtually wiped out during the first few days of the futile campaign. 

The 6 th Munsters suffered many casualties on the push along the ridge 

towards Jephson’s Post. Amongst the casualties was Lieutenant Joseph 

Bagnall Lee, killed in action on the 7 th August on the Kiretch Tepe Ridge, 

at Suvla Bay. It was said that his younger brother Tennyson, saw Joe’s 

body being removed from the ridge by stretcher bearers, to be buried by 

the Methodist Chaplain, Robert Spence. 

In a poignant account published in the Irish Times, Spence described 

his discovery of Joe’s body. ‘We were nearing the firing line and somewhat 

apprehensive, when close by, in the gathering light of the early dawn, 

I saw a man lying face downwards, motionless, lifeless. On looking 

closely at the features, I found it was my good friend Lieutenant Lee, a 

young fellow whose successful college career promised a future of rare 

brilliance. He had laid all on his country’s altar. Twenty four hours before 

we were laughing and chatting together on the troopship, where he was 

so full of life and spirit. Now I was looking through tears on his lifeless 

body. A grave having been dug on our return from the firing line later, we 


laid his broken body in its last resting place, on a rocky slope over-looking 

the Aegean Sea, confident that by his very willingness to die for the cause 

of right, he had proved his title to that unending life ‘when eternal morn 

shall rise and shadows end’. 42 

Already badly traumatised, younger brother Tennyson, still fighting 

on the ridge, was shot two days later, sustaining a wound to his right 

shoulder. He was shipped out on the Acquitania and arrived in England 

on the 23 rd August, 1915. After convalescing in Somerville College 3 rd 

Southern General Hospital, Oxford, he returned home to his mother and 

father. Ironically, before the two boys left for the war, Annie had made Joe 

promise to look after his younger brother. But it was the younger one who 

now returned alone. After more treatment in Ireland, Tennyson would 

end the war in Arquetta, north of Genoa, Italy, as Officer commanding 

89 th Labour Group. 

During the Great War, Lee’s premises at 48 Mary Street, was used for 

the collection and distribution of comforts for the troops and to help the 

Red Cross, with whom Annie was a volunteer helper. Edward Lee was on 

the recruiting committee of the 10 th (Commercial) Battalion of the Royal 

Dublin Fusiliers. The family business continued to trade successfully 

during this time. However, profiteering during the war was rife and 

Edward Lee was angry about this state of affairs. ‘He had lost a great deal 

of his faith in the integrity of commercial men since the war began. There 

were people who were making three times the profit they were making 

before the war. That was not playing the game. They were having their 

bit out of the war. ‘Profiteering’ was one of the things that might put us 

in the way of losing the war and it was the poor people that were saddled 

with the extra cost the ‘profiteers’ demanded’. He feared that troubles 

might arise due to food prices in Dublin city. He felt the way to address 

this was to raise the standard of wages. ‘For it was found that where good 

wages were paid, efficiency was the result’. 43 

Clearly, the war was already changing the ‘old order’ of things. The 

days of the benevolent father-figure employer, who looked after the 

needs of the employee and their families, but who expected total loyalty 

in return, would soon be gone forever. By the end of 1918 the ‘governor’ 

was beginning to be a relic of another age. He was now sixty four years 

old. 


43 Irish Times. 29/3/1917 


49

6th Royal Munster Fusiliers. Joe Lee is fifth from the right (standing). Alfred Tennyson is standing tallest with back to door. 

Lieutenant Joseph Bagnall Lee. 

6th Royal Munster Fusiliers. 

Humorous postcard of Lt. Lee 

and Lt. Fashom, 6th RMF. 

Captain Robert Ernest Lee, Royal 

Army Medical Corps. 14th Field 

Ambulance, 5th Division. 


Unknown newspaper cutting from 1915. 

Certificate awarded to Annie Lee 

for services to British Red Cross. 

Kiretch Tepe Ridge, 

Suvla Bay Gallipoli. 2015. 

Alfred Tennyson Lee (standing) convalescing in the 3rd 

Southern General Hospital Oxford after being wounded 

at Suvla Bay Gallipoli in August 1915. 


51

Town Tenants League 

Edward Lee was a believer in the ownership of the land by the 

families who lived and worked on it. He was a vocal opponent 

of landlords, especially absentee ones. He was a founder 

member of the Town Tenants League. As a member of the committee, 

he gave valuable advice to the General Secretary, Coghlan Briscoe, in 

drafting the heads for the Town Tenants Bill in 1905. His late son Joseph 

Bagnall Lee, as a member of the Bar, had also written a textbook on the 

subject. 

In July 1917, the Government established the Irish Convention for the 

purpose of devising a constitution for Ireland. Edward Lee, speaking at the 

annual meeting of the Town Tenants League referred to the Convention 

being held in Dublin. ‘One of the most momentous Conventions that has 

ever been summoned during our lives. We only hope and pray that it 

might be guided by moderation, good sense and compromise. It would 

certainly be to everyone’s advantage that something definite was arrived 

at as a result of the Convention’. 44 

The following year, the Town Tenants League held a meeting in 

reference to the proposed Town Tenants Purchase Bill. If passed, the 

bill would secure homes and industrial premises from middlemen and 

absentee landlords. Businessmen all over Ireland endorsed the proposal, 

calling for united action by all town tenants to secure the passing into 

law of the Bill. At this meeting a letter from Edward Lee was read out 

to the Committee. ‘Dear Mr. Briscoe – I am entirely with you in respect 

of a Bill to enable town tenants to purchase their holdings. Germane in 

this, Henry Ford of Ford car fame writes in the ‘Sunday Times’ May 19 th 

1918: ‘That the glorious privileges of work and opportunity shall be open 

throughout the world to every man that he may live happily and securely 

in his own country on his own land.’ Wishing you every success in your 

efforts. – Yours faithfully, Edward Lee’. 45 

The Lees had suffered a terrible loss with the death of Joe in 1915, but 

so had many other families. The war was now entering its final phase. It 

was October of 1918 and the end of the war was in sight, the Armistice 

would be signed within a month. Although the war years had not been 




kind to them, Edward and Annie must have felt that they had prevailed 

and that they had been lucky in some ways. They had lost their beloved 

Joe, but the other boys had survived. Fate however had one last terrible 

twist for the Lee family. 

The Sinking Of The 

RMS Leinster 

On the morning of 10 th October 1918, the RMS Leinster sailed 

out of Dún Laoghaire Harbour, on its way to Holyhead. On 

board were hundreds of civilians, postal workers, crew and 

soldiers. At about 10am, as the ship passed the Kish bank, it was torpedoed 

twice by German submarine UB-123 and sank quickly. There was panic 

and terror on board and over 500 souls lost their lives that day. According 

to Terry de Valera, Robert Ernest managed to board a lifeboat but when 

he noticed a woman and her child in distress in the water, he jumped 

back in and managed to help them board the lifeboat. Unfortunately in 

the panic and confusion, Robert Ernest then drifted away and was lost. 46 It 

was a dreadful shock to Edward and Annie when they heard the terrible 

news. Edward, in a letter the next day to his son Tennyson in London 

wrote, ‘My own dear boy Tennyson, you will have seen no doubt from the 

papers the terrible tragedy which occurred to the Mail Boat yesterday. I 

fear our very dear and loved son Robert Ernest is no more in this world. 

Oh the horror of it, God alone knows the sorrow that we feel. Your loving 

and affectionate father, Edward Lee’. 47 

‘They died as they lived, bravely and 

unselfishly giving inspiration to us allbut 

their spirit lives and can never die.’ 

Also amongst those lost in the sinking were former neighbours of 

the Lees in Stillorgan. Lieutenant Sydney Crawford of the Royal Dublin 

Fusiliers and his sister Letitia Hill had come home to visit a seriously ill 

46 A Memoir by Terry de Valera. Currach Press 2004 

47 Letter to Tennyson Lee. 11/10/1918 


53

Captain Robert Ernest Lee RAMC. 

Drowned when RMS Leinster was 

torpedoed off Dún Laoghaire, 

10th October 1918. 

‘Oh the horror of it.’ 

Letter to Tennyson, 11 October 1918. 

‘but their spirit lives and can never die.’ 

Letter to Tennyson 10 November 1918 

RMS Leinster in ‘Dazzle’ camouflage. 


sister. It is possible that they met Robert Ernest aboard the ship. Sydney’s 

body washed ashore on the west coast of Scotland and was buried there. 

Letitia’s body was never found. 48 Robert Ernest Lee’s remains were 

recovered near Gorey Co. Wexford and he was buried in the family grave 

in Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin. The man who discovered Robert 

Ernest’s remains was later given a job for life in one of Edward Lee’s 

shops. 

But that was not the end of the story. Sometime later a lady knocked 

on the door at Bellevue. It was the woman who had been saved by Robert 

Ernest. She wished to express her grateful thanks to Edward and Annie 

for their son’s gallantry in saving her and her child’s life. In another letter 

to Tennyson on the 10 th November 1918, Edward enclosed extracts of 

two letters sent to him about Robert Ernest’s bravery during the sinking, 

helping a nurse put on her life jacket and helping a fellow officer who had 

a metal splint in his arm and needed help with his life belt. But the pain of 

loss was evident. ‘Oh we do feel so terribly poorer for the loss of our brave 

boys - they died as they lived bravely and unselfishly giving inspiration 

to us all - but their spirit lives and can never die. We are very proud but 

very, very sad - I will just go now with Ted to visit his grave. Love from 

Mother and Ted with my own’. 49 

The Great War ended on the 11 th November 1918, the day after the 

letter was written. But for the Lee family, the sadness would live with 

them for the rest of their lives. 

A Place In The Sun 

In the years after the war, Edward Lee continued to concern 

himself with workers’ rights. In a very telling letter to Tennyson 

on the 24 th November 1918, it is plain to see where his sympathies 

lay, ‘Possibly you have not heard of the strike at Arnotts, the place is 

closed since Wednesday night - I fear the firm are wrong as they refused 

to discuss matters with the union - that day is gone and the workers are 

48 Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster by Philip Lecane. Periscope Publishing 2005 



55

determined to get a place in the sun which I think is quite as it should 

be’. 50 At this time there was great difficulty in the commercial life of 

Dublin. The effects of the War and the Rising were still being felt and there 

were still labour troubles. In March of 1919 the Dublin Merchants Annual 

report contained a brief note from the Association’s President, Edward 

Lee, still a shrewd but fair businessman. In the report, he again addressed 

the employers and employees; ‘A cogent message for masters and men 

alike, good wages, shorter hours - an ideal realisable, but production must 

be maintained and if possible, increased – otherwise economic disaster’. 51 

‘The workers are determined to get a 

place in the sun, which I think is quite 

as it should be’ 

At the 1919 AGM, Edward Lee as President of the Dublin Mercantile 

Association gave his opinion on the social upheavals afflicting Irish 

society. ‘There was nothing that would settle the unrest like giving every 

worker in the community a stake in the country and a stake in the business 

in which he worked. There should be a system of profit sharing with the 

worker, a policy which might do away with strikes in the country. What 

they had to do was to give labour a good wage and good conditions of 

employment and to give capital a fair return’. 52 

Labour unrest and fairness for both worker and business was still 

occupying Edward Lee’s mind when he delivered an address at the 

annual distribution of prizes to the students of Blackrock Technical 

School in the Town Hall at the end of November 1919. Referring to the 

industrial strife he said, ‘my conviction is that the workers should have 

good conditions of employment, the highest standard of wages and 

capital should have a fair interest and after that a portion of the profits 

should be given to the workers and a portion assigned to capital. What 

can be done with efficiency is to get everyone interested in their work 

and to make them feel that they were interested in the concern in which 

they were engaged. Technical instruction and training must mean better 

work, better pay and greater production. If production only meant more 


51 Irish Times. 19/3/1919 

52 Irish Times. 27/3/1919 


profit for the capitalists, as some trade unionists asserted, I do not agree 

with it. The time is coming when labour is going to have a place in the 

sun, but labour has its duties as well as its rights and its duties are to 

the whole community. I believe at least we are going to have a good and 

happy commonwealth’. 53 

Edward Lee’s comments and opinions were very forward thinking 

and even radical for the time. These were socialist ideas coming from an 

employer, ideas that would not have been shared by most of the other 

employers. 

‘the workers are determined to get a place in the sun which I think is quite as it should be.’ 

Letter to Tennyson 24 November 1918. 

1920s and 30s 

Sadness and grief were never far away from Edward and Annie 

now. The war had effectively halved the family, just Ted and 

Tennyson were left to help their father run the business. Both 

the brothers married in the early 1920s and at last there was great joy 

when Ted and Orynthia (née Collings), his Cardiff born wife, had a son 

in 1923. The boy was also named Edward after his grandfather. During 



57

this period, Edward Lee kept interested in the business, although he 

was beginning to take a lesser role in the day to day affairs. Another 

sadness for Edward and Annie was the death on 5 th December 1920 of 

Annie Cosgrave. Annie, although technically a servant was treated as a 

friend and had lived with the Lee family from their time in The Grange in 

Stillorgan in the early 1900s. She died in Bellevue aged 70 and her death 

notice in the paper, placed there by the Lee family, read ‘Devoted and 

faithful friend and servant of Mr and Mrs Edward Lee.’ Annie was laid to 

rest in Glasnevin Cemetery. 

In 1922, during the Civil War, and greatly concerned with the outrages 

against Protestants in Cork, Edward Lee joined the Committee of the Irish 

Protestant Convention. He was also a member of the Lord Mayor’s Fund 

Committee, set up to help victims of the Belfast Pogrom, when many 

Catholics were expelled from their jobs, evicted from their homes and 

intimidated, even to the point of murder. Although he was a man who 

was religious in his own private way, he was also a man who accepted 

and respected people of all religions and none, and was horrified 

by sectarianism. On 6 th June 1922, Edward Lee, and other members 

of the Town Tenants Association, paid a visit to see General Michael 

Collins, Chairman of the Provisional Government about tenant matters. 

Unfortunately, Collins was indisposed and could not see them. Tragically, 

Michael Collins was shot dead two months later. A photograph of the 

Town Tenants Deputation, including Edward Lee outside Government 

Buildings, Merrion Street, was published in the Irish Independent the 

next day. 

About one month later in early July 1922, a spate of robberies was 

perpetrated on various branches of Lee’s at Dún Laoghaire, Bray, 

Rathmines and Tyrrellspass. Clothing and other items to the value of 

£110 in total were stolen. Anti-Treaty Forces were suspected of carrying 

out the raids. At the end of April 1923, a bomb was detonated in the 

Rathmines branch, causing over £8,000 worth of damage, but fortunately 

no injuries. In a witness statement to the Bureau of Military History by 

Justice Cahir Davitt in 1959, it was affirmed that this act of destruction 

was carried out by the Anti-Treaty forces. 54 At this time there was 

escalating intimidation of businesses, including Protestant owned ones 

and Lee’s had been warned by ‘certain people opposed to the authorities 

54 Witness statement by The Hon. Justice Cahir Davitt. Bureau of Military History 

1913-21 Document No W.S. 1751 (Military Archives) 


that any firm advertising in certain newspapers would have their 

premises destroyed’. 55 Shocked and upset, ‘Mr. Lee said he was at a loss 

to understand why his shop should have been singled out for destruction. 

He was glad his apprentices escaped so well’. 56 It is interesting that Lee’s 

in Rathmines should be singled out, as it did have some Republican 

sympathisers, such as Maeve Cavanagh, employed there. But perhaps the 

more likely motivation was the newspaper photograph of the meeting 

with the Provisional Government in June 1922. Certainly the Lee family 

would have had Pro-Treaty sympathies by this time. 

Ironically therefore, and considering Edward Lee’s political views, 

Éamon de Valera and his family became the next tenants of Bellevue 

on Cross Avenue, Blackrock when, in 1933, Annie Lee left Bellevue, a 

house full of memories, to live with Ted’s family. Before Annie vacated 

the house, she met Sinéad de Valera on a few occasions and according 

to de Valera’s youngest son, Terry 57 the two women, although politically 

opposite, became good friends. They had many chats together, Annie 

telling Sinéad of the great sadness in her life regarding the terrible fate 

that befell her two sons in the war. 58 Sometimes Annie would go out into 

the back garden of Bellevue and imagine Joe and Robert Ernest were with 

her. Unfortunately, the de Valeras would have their own family tragedy 

while living in Bellevue. Brian, another son, was killed when he was out 

riding his horse in February 1936. 

Towards the end of October 1926, Edward Lee involved himself 

in what would be his last public cause, the coal shortage for the poor 

campaign in Blackrock. He attended a meeting in Blackrock Town Hall, 

where a Relief Committee was formed. Even at this late stage of his life 

he involved himself in relief efforts for the poor. It was stated that the 

Government was unable to promise a supply of ten tons of coal. Edward 

Lee, ever practical, stated, ‘There was plenty of small timber available. 

The people would only be too willing to cut it up as well as they could. 

They could take the waste timber, the removal of which would benefit 

the other trees’. 59 

By now, Edward Lee was becoming increasingly frail. In 1926 he had 



57 Terry de Valera in conversation with the Michael Lee. 

58 ibid 

59 Irish Times. 23/10/1926 


59

Edward (Grandson), Unknown, Ann (Grandaughter), 

Orynthia Lee, Annie Lee, John (Grandson), 

Winifrid Lee, circa 1935. 

Annie Lee 1920s. 

Annie Lee on left of picture in black fur coat and fur hat next to Taoiseach W.T. Cosgrave. 

Also in photo, Ted and Orynthia Lee and Ernest Blythe, Minister for Finance. Late 1920s. 


Annie Lee and Tennyson Lee 1930s. Edward, Annie Lee, Ann,unknown, Orynthia Lee Circa 1930. 

Ted, Unknown, Mrs Collings, Orynthia (Ted’s 

wife) Annie and Edward Lee 1920s. 

Wedding of Edward (Ted) Lee and Orynthia Collings. 

7 Dec 1921. 


61

een diagnosed with throat cancer. All his life he had smoked and he now 

travelled to London to see a consultant, but he knew his time was short. In 

a letter to Tennyson from Tyrrellspass on the 16 th June 1926 he said, ‘I feel 

my general health is much improved since I came down, but I know the 

trouble the doctors fear remains’. He spent more time in Tyrrellspass, no 

doubt reliving and remembering his boyhood years and the beginnings of 

his successful and eventful career. His religious faith was a great comfort 

to him, as was his family, whom he loved dearly. When his beloved boys, 

Robert Ernest and Joe died, the light went out of his life and although he 

and Annie continued on, they must have, in quiet moments, wondered 

what it had all been for, when, all those years ago in Tyrrellspass, a young 

man with dreams had made them a reality. 

An Honest Christian Man 

Edward Lee was known to be a generous and fair employer. He 

was proud of the fact that he was, ‘a self-made man’. He held 

and acted with high principles all his life and believed in the 

dignity of work. He had no problem with the idea of profit, but it should 

never be made at the expense of the workers. To this end, he gave all his 

employees a share of the profits. He passionately believed in the welfare 

of his staff and was proud of the fact that he had worked to lessen the 

working week. Although not politically motivated, he joined Bray UDC 

to further his social agenda. His concern for the poor and for the proper 

housing of families is well documented. He paid a heavy price for his 

support of the war, but he never let his grief and sorrow embitter him. His 

faith remained strong to the end. In a heartbreaking letter to Tennyson 

on the 24 th November 1918, the ‘governor’, made hopeful reference to 

all his lost children. ‘We only trust in God that when our time comes we 

may meet our babes and our dear Joe and Ernest with all our loved ones 

where there will be no more partings or death or sorrow - May we prove 

ourselves worthy’. 

Edward Lee died at his home Bellevue on the 14 th February 1927 at 

the age of 73. On his death, Annie became chairman of the business until 

she died in 1938. Edward Lee was buried at a strictly private funeral in 


Deansgrange Cemetery, alongside his son Robert Ernest and his other 

deceased children. There was also a poignant acknowledgment of Joseph 

on the family gravestone, whose remains still lie at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli. 

None of the family would be forgotten and eventually Annie would also 

lie beside her beloved children and husband. Over the years, Edward Lee 

had attended many funerals of friends and business acquaintances and it 

says much about the man that even in death he desired no plaudits. His 

death notice in the paper simply included the words Peace, Perfect Peace, 

which perhaps is what he desired most of all. 

Amongst the tributes paid were these from members of Bray UDC. Mr. 

Byrne said, ‘He did yeoman service for their township and especially for 

the working classes. He was the leading star in the erection of workmen’s 

cottages at a time when they were even more needed than today’. And 

from Mr Frane, ‘A finer type of honest Christian man I never met. He 

never said a harsh word or never did a bad turn to anybody’. 

‘We only trust in God that when our 

time comes, we may meet our babes 

and our dear Joe and Ernest with all 

our loved ones, where there will be no 

more partings or death or sorrow - 

may we prove ourselves worthy.’ 


63

As a family we are very proud of Edward Lee. He was an ordinary 

man, as he said of himself, ‘a humble worker in the ranks’. Obviously 

he had his faults, but his humanity and decency towards people cannot 

be denied. Edward Lee, the fair minded, family loving man, more than 

‘proved himself worthy’. 



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Edward Lee 


Edward Lee was born in 1853 in Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath. In 

1885, he opened his first drapery shop, Edward Lee and Co. in 

Bray, Co. Wicklow. Recognised for his caring attitude towards his 

employees, he also had a strong social conscience. As Chairman of 

Bray Housing Committee, he oversaw the erection of houses for 

the working people of the borough. During the Dublin Lockout 

in 1913, Edward Lee disagreed with the tactics of William Martin 

Murphy and other employers. He was involved with many of the 

iconic names of the day including Michael Collins, James Connolly, 

Jim Larkin, Éamon de Valera, Tom Kettle, Joseph Plunkett, Thomas 

MacDonagh and Sir Hugh Lane. A devoted family man, Edward 

and his wife Annie had nine children. Four sons survived into 

manhood, but the Great War would take a terrible toll on the 

family. The business and the family would shine brightly for a short 

time, before the great upheavals of the early twentieth century 

would change their lives forever. But, through all this, Edward Lee 

remained a Man of Moral Courage. 

Michael Lee is a great-grandson of Edward Lee. Along with his 

brother Edward, he has been studying the Lee family history for 

many years. He has also carried out extensive research into the 

Irish involvement in the Great War and has written numerous 

articles on the subject. He has worked on various TV documentaries 

for RTÉ, including Gallipoli: Ireland’s Forgotten Heroes and Fr. 

Browne’s Forgotten War. He is Senior News Cameraman in RTÉ. 

ISBN 978-0-9956091-0-5 

9 780995 609105

Edward Lee

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