The title on this is interesting
"Miss Godfrey, with bridesmaids etc." implying that the poor groom is a mere appendage? A glamorous wedding group with a happy male contingent while the bridesmaids seem somewhat discomfited?
Photographer:
A. H. Poole
Collection:
Poole Photographic Studio, Waterford
Date: Between
1901 - 1954 10th September 1927
NLI Ref:
POOLEWP 3457
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at
catalogue.nli.ie
Info:
Owner:
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Source:
Flickr Commons
Views: 4878
Rory_Sherlock
A marriage between Mary Godfrey and Richard Edwards on 10 Sept 1927 in the cathedral in Lismore, Co Waterford, might fit the bill: civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marri...
Bernard Healy
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/] Yes - we have a picture of bride & groom here. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000594065 She was the daughter of a baronet, whilst he was a land agent.
Rory_Sherlock
Here's Mary Godfrey, aged 11, in the 1911 census in Lismore: www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003493398/
Rory_Sherlock
I think they were married by the Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, Godfrey Day, who is referred to in the marriage cert as Godfrey Ossory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Day Perhaps he was related to the bride's family, which would explain his trip to Lismore
Bernard Healy
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/] Her father fell in for the Baronetcy shortly before the wedding: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_baronets The seat of the Godfrey baronetcy was in Milltown, Co.Kerry.
Bernard Healy
In Jane O’Keeffe’s Voices of the Great Houses: Kerry and Cork, there is an interview with their son Dermot Edwards. He says that his father’s father died in the Great War. An estate which he was expected to inherit went to a relation, so his father (the groom above) ended up working for the Duke of Devonshire who eventually sent him to live in a wing of Lismore Castle as landagent. There he met Mary Constance Godfrey- whose father also worked for the Devonshires - she used to visit the castle, being of similar age to the Devonshire girls. His father subsequently ended up working as land agent for bigger estates in England.
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy I was only thinking of you this morning and that I had not seen you here for a while! You are welcome back as indeed all are welcome!
Bernard Healy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/ Thank you! I have been lurking but have only been logging on to Flickr later in the day when all the mysteries have been solved.
Bernard Healy
A tribute to their son - who had a wonderful beard: www.munstercricket.ie/news/tribute-to-dermot-edwards-pres... The groom’s commission for World War II: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/2912e8f0-93d4... Details of the groom’s father: www.janetandrichardsgenealogy.co.uk/Capt%20A%20C%20Edward...
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Here is Mary Constance Godfrey (1900 - 26/10/1957) at The Peerage - www.thepeerage.com/p64858.htm#i648580
Bernard Healy
One last comment - I note that the wedding was performed by Godfrey Day, Bishop of Ossory. Lismore would have - I think - been under the Anglican bishop of Waterford at the time, so why was the wedding done by the Bishop of Ossory? Like the bride, he has strong Kerry connections & his first name might even imply a family relationship. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Day
Niall McAuley
There are a couple of undigitized Pooles like POOLEK 5894a which are of Godfrey-Edwards wedding at Lismore which are labelled c1927, which is confirmation.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Flickr is sometimes amazing! Lismore Castle stonework and dungeon (see note) matches above the left end of the green oval - via https://www.flickr.com/photos/italy_and_greece_tour/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/italy_and_greece_tour/8372566779/
Rory_Sherlock
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy Very Interesting! It seems that the bride and the bishop were third cousins once removed... she was a great- great- great- granddaughter of Sir William Godfrey (1st Bt), and the bishop was his great- great- grandson (though his father Maurice, Bishop of Clogher, his grandfather John, Dean of Ardfert, and his great-grandfather John, Rector of Kiltallagh)
philipgmayer
The Groom is definitely the prettiest in that group. 💕
Niall McAuley
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] 's wedding record gives witnesses: John E. Godfrey, Ralph Edwards, Evileen M. Godfrey, Sybill Walthall
Bernard Healy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/ That makes sense. Kiltallagh is close to the Godfrey seat at Kilcolman/Bushmount & I wouldn’t be surprised if the rectory was in the gift of the Godfreys. One of Kerry’s few remaining rural Church of Ireland schools is located at Kiltallagh.
Niall McAuley
I like the woman 2nd from our left as the brides sister Evileen Godfrey.
Bernard Healy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/ I think Eileen M Godfey is the bride’s mother. See the census linked above. The bridesmaid you mention looks like a sister alright, but I think the witnesses on the register are the bride’s parents.
Bernard Healy
Bingo! Found an account of this “fashionable wedding” on page 3: snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/enewspapers/dungarvan_o...
Rory_Sherlock
Bushfield House (the residence of the Godfrey family in Lismore according to the newspaper account of the wedding) is a very important building in architectural terms (as a Victorian timber-framed two-storey house), but it has seen better days - www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22809...
[email protected]
Nicely framed ;-)
Niall McAuley
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy Good find! Best man is Lieut. R.A.B. Edwards, brother of the groom. Bridesmaids Misses Dorothy and Ursula Godfrey (sisters of the bride) and Misses Anne and Diana Edwards (sisters of the groom). Train carried my Master William Jameson in a white satin suit. Brides dress is ivory, bridesmaids dull apricot chiffon with ecru lace. The bishop is a cousin of the bride. Among the guests and gifts are some names we know: Lady Clodagh Anson, the Misses Malcolmson, Claud Anson, E. W. Becher, Percival Maxwell, Ponsonby, Dobbs, Wyndham...
Niall McAuley
Master Jameson is evidently the son of Capt. and Mrs T.O. Jameson. Witness Sybill Walthall must be related to Brigadier General Walthall. thepeerage dot com says Isabel Sybil Edwards married Colonel Edward Charles Walthall Delves Walthall, who gained the rank of Honorary Temporary Brigadier-General in 1921.
Niall McAuley
Bridesmaids Dorothy and Helen Godfrey are only 2 years apart. The bridesmaid beside the groom is clearly his sister.
Rory_Sherlock
The boy in the photo, Master William Jameson (aged 3), died in 1994. Known by his second name, Shane, he was said to have been the last of the Jameson family to be connected to the whiskey business and his three daughters still live at Tourin House, Cappoquin: www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/the-jameson-sist... tourin.ie/about-tourin-house/
Bernard Healy
Two more things that I came across from Dermot Edwards’s recollections. The bride’s sisters remained spinsters. They moved out of Killcolman Abbey (Kerry seat of the Godfrey family) after their father’s death when it was sold to a relation. In relatively straitened circumstances they moved to Lismore. They were passionate gardeners & advised various estate holders in Ireland about their gardens. I think the Godfrey home in Lismore was called Bushfield because that was the original name of Kilcolman Abbey. (Sadly the Abbey fell into disrepair & was demolished.) Regarding the Day family - originally Cork merchants but also prominent in Kerry - it seems as though there was a tradition of the Days bailing out the Godfreys whenever the latter fell into financial difficulties.
John Spooner
Can't see them mentioned elsewhere, but the Coventry Evening Telegraph says those flowers the bride is holding are Harrisii lilies.
Bernard Healy
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner] Also known as the Bermuda Easter Lily. www.thebermudian.com/home-a-garden/nature/field-notes-the...
Bernard Healy
I see that Lismore Castle is in the news today: m.independent.ie/irish-news/two-counties-tipped-to-welcom...
La Belle Province
Oh my my, every detail is so elegant and full of life, not the least of which is that little pouting cherub in front. And the heaps and heaps of lace!
Peter Denton
I wonder how long it took the two men to get their hair partings so immaculately straight... and don't you just know that the little kid in the front is a brat?!
Bernard Healy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/ Dermot Edwards adds that Dorothy & Ursula were known as “Dood” and “Kid” & suggests that they might have inspired the characters Nod & Blink in Molly Keane’s book Good Behaviour.