The Reside Collection Exploring Aspects of Local History
Samuel Wilson Reside and his wife, Mildred Amelia, photographed in the 1900s.
Courtesy of Fergus Hanna Bell
Réamhrá an Chathaoirligh
Is mór an pleisiúr domh réamhrá a scríobh don leabhrán seo a théann leis an taispeántas An Bailiúchan Reside – Ag Leanstan Gnéithe na Staire Áitiúla
Tá an Bailiúchán Reside ann mar thoradh na saolta próifisiúnta de chuid Samuel Wilson Reside agus an Maor Gerald Reside a bhí ina n-ailtirí agus a n-innealtóirí, agus Margaret Reside, dlíodóir as Iúr Cinn Trá. Tá gnéithe ann fosta a léiríonn a gcuid suimeanna agus caithimh aimsire, stair áitiúil go príomha.
Coimeádtar an taispeántas seo chun spléachadh a thabhairt ar sheodra agus bhuacphointí na cartlainne speisialta seo agus lena hacmhainneacht taighde a léiriú do staraithe áitiúla agus teaghlaigh, ailtirí agus innealtóirí.
D’úsáidtí an Bailiúchán go forleathan i ngach taispeántas ag an Iarsmalann agus bhíodh tarraingt mhór ag cuairteoirí air chun taighde a dhéanamh ar stair áitiúil agus teaghlaigh. Is beag iarsmalann áitiúla a bhfuil cartlann staire áitiúla chomh saibhir seo acu, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le Fergus Hanna Bell, nia le Gerald agus Margaret Reside, as a chuid flaithiúlachta an Bailiúchán a bhronnadh ar an Iarsmalann. Tá mé sásta fosta gur scríobh sé na cuimhní atá aige ar Chlann Reside sa leabhrán, saothar a thugann léargas luachmhar don Bhailiúchán seo.
An Comhairleoir Séarlaí Ó Cathasaigh
An Cathaoirleach, Comhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin
Chairperson’s Foreword
I am delighted to write the foreword to this booklet, which accompanies the exhibition
The Reside Collection –
Exploring
Aspects of Local History
The Reside Collection is the product of the professional lives of Samuel Wilson Reside and Major Gerald Reside who were architects and engineers, and Margaret Reside, a Newry solicitor. There are also elements that reflect their interests and hobbies, primarily local history.
This exhibition is curated to provide a glimpse of the treasures and highlights of this unique archive and to demonstrate its research potential to local and family historians, architects and engineers.
The Collection has been extensively used in all the exhibitions at the Museum and has also been a major attraction for visitors researching local and family history.
Very few local museums have such a rich local history archive, and I would like to thank Fergus Hanna Bell, nephew of Gerald and Margaret Reside, for his generosity in donating the Collection to the Museum.
I am also gratified that he has contributed his memories of the Reside family to the booklet, providing an invaluable insight to this Collection.
Councillor Charlie Casey
Chairman, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell (with additional information by Noreen Cunningham and Ken Abraham)
My mother was Mildred Reside and her brother was Gerald Reside and they were brought up in Windsor Hill in the 1920s. Their father, Samuel Wilson Reside, was an engineer and architect in Newry for many years.
My great grandfather, James Reside, was the postmaster at Carnlough, county Antrim. It was said locally that he was more interested in ‘stargazing’ (astronomy) than in running the post office. He was also very involved in the Methodist Church, and it was said that on certain Sundays he would walk all the way from Carnlough to the Methodist church in Carrickfergus for his Sunday worship, a distance of some twenty-five miles.
My grandfather Samuel Wilson Reside started out at Methodist College in Belfast. When he left school, he trained firstly in the engineering firm of Combe, Barber and Combe and then he moved to Clarke and Company and he was with them from 1891 to 1895. They were the ship builders situated at Queen’s Island known locally as the ‘wee yard’ as opposed to Harland and Wolfe, and by 1895, employed a workforce of 3,500 and they were building a very large contingent of ships every year.
His background and training was more in engineering than as an architect, but after a period of private study he spent a year in the United States and then he became an engineer to Larne Urban District Council sanitary and waterworks. He was then assistant to the
architect Richard Henry Dorman, who had been appointed to the position of County Surveyor for county Armagh. He remained as deputy to Richard Henry Dorman until he opened his own office in Newry in 1904, so he was obviously working in Newry before 1904. His office was located in Margaret Square. During his career, he was engineer to Newry No. 1 Rural District Council, to Newry Board of Guardians and joint engineer to the Rathfriland water supply and engineer/ surveyor for the Kilmorey estate.
Samuel Wilson Reside married Mildred Amelia Ferguson. Her father, Valentine Ferguson, ran a watchmaker’s and jeweller’s shop in Sugar Island in Newry, just near Sugar Island bridge and he was a Methodist. He had at least two children, including my grandmother. Her brother, James Ferguson, who became a very successful doctor in Southall, Suffolk, had a very soft spot for Newry and left his estate to the Newry Methodist church.
My mother and uncle were born at Millvale near Bessbrook, where the family lived before moving to ‘Windarra’, Windsor Hill in Newry. She was younger than my uncle, who was born in 1906. They were both educated at Newry Intermediate School, then my mother was sent to Ashleigh House School, which was on Windsor Avenue, off the Malone Road in Belfast. When my mother left school, she had the opportunity to go to Trinity College, Dublin to read foreign languages,
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell
Mildred Amelia Reside pictured with her children, Mildred, as a baby and Gerald, standing.
Courtesy of Fergus Hanna Bell
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
but she decided not to do that. But she did go to Dublin, to teacher training college at Alexandra College, where she studied the Frobel system of early years education which was very child centric. She spent her professional life as a teacher, and first taught at The French School, Bray, county Dublin. When the Second World War broke out she returned to the north and taught in a number of schools. At Wallace High School in Lisburn she was introduced by one of her colleagues, John Boyd, to Sam Hanna Bell, the broadcaster and author, who she married.
My uncle, Gerald Reside, attended Campbell College and Queen’s University, Belfast and graduated with a degree in civil engineering. I think he immediately joined the family architectural and engineering practice in Newry and remained there for his entire career, other than six years when he was in the army. He joined up with the Royal Artillery at the beginning of the Second World War. He was Commander of an anti-aircraft battery and was rescued from Dunkirk, and involved in the D-Day Landings. He spent a considerable amount of time in Europe during the war but talked very little about his military career. He always thought that the men that he served with were very brave and he spoke highly of them, but never revealed any further detail.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell
Margaret Fisher, pictured back row second from left, with members of the Queen’s University Hockey Team which won the All-Ireland Senior Championship and the Ulster Shield in 1926 . She was also a member of the Ulster Ladies Hockey Team which won the inter-provincial championship in 1924.
Gerald married Margaret Fisher in 1947, she was the same age as him. She was educated at Methodist College, Belfast and then Wakefield Girls’ High School, Yorkshire. She always said that the most famous person she came across in that school was the sculptress, Barbara Hepworth. Margaret was a member of the Fisher family who were involved with the coal trade in Newry.
Her father Alec Fisher started the firm of Fisher & Fisher in 1898 along with his brother John and that firm became the largest solicitor’s practice in Newry. Alec Fisher was very entrepreneurial and successful in attracting clients from all sections of the community in the town.
When she left school, Margaret went to study law at Queen’s University. She was a very enthusiastic hockey player, in fact not only did she win caps for Ulster, but she represented Ireland in a match against the United States. She always talked about the people she met at Queen’s including the Hewitts who were great rugby players at that time. When she left Queen’s she immediately embarked on a career in law. She passed her Law Society exams with flying colours and went into practice with her father and her sister, Dorothy. She had two brothers, Bertie, who went to Scotland and owned a bakery at Broughty Ferry near Dundee. Her other brother Lex, was a very successful academic and medic and lectured for many years at Oxford University and Queen’s University, Belfast.
The practice flourished for many years until the death of her father in 1948. The will he made was contested, and the two sisters fell out over its contents. An arbitration followed for many years, during which the future of the practice was discussed. It kind of fizzled out because Dorothy left Fisher & Fisher and set up her own successful practice.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell James Craig (left), Viscount Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland at the opening of Divernagh Orange Hall in 1935 with Major Gerald Reside (right) who was the architect of the new hall. Courtesy of Fergus Hanna BellMargaret Fisher, pictured front row seventh from left, at a legal profession cup competition at Malone Golf Cub, Belfast in May 1928. She was one of only three lady solicitors to take part, the other lady competitors were May Donaghy and Annie O’Kane.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
Gerald and Margaret must have known each other in the 1920s at Queen’s University and the two families would have also known each other. I think the war must have intervened in their romance, as they did not get married until 1947.
The Resides lived in quite a modest house in Windsor Hill, Newry but they kept a live-in housekeeper and they would have sought to move in what was called ‘polite society’. I suppose they might have been a family that were ‘upwardly mobile’. The Fishers who lived in a large house, ‘Coolbawn’, Warrenpoint, overlooking the swimming pool, were better established, and my aunt’s mother had great tenacity in pursuing the interests of both her daughters.
In the 1930s Gerald Reside had built a bungalow in Ballynedden townland, outside Rostrevor. It was known as Ballynedden
Cottage, and just along the laneway which went from the county road down to the shore road was Killowen Cottage, an earlier building that the Fisher family owned. During the war the family residence at Warrenpoint was used by the military, and Killowen Cottage was rebuilt and the gardens and grounds laid out to a plan by Margaret’s mother, who died in January 1945.
Gerald Reside extended and renovated the property and it became a highly regarded house largely because it had a wonderful garden that Margaret and Gerald developed over 30 or 40 years. Margaret was very friendly with the owners of Daisy Hill Nursery and in particular, Alan Grills, who helped in getting her a lot of plants and also the Singer family from Newcastle, who owned the Slieve Donard Nursery. Her great interest really was her garden and she was Chair of the National Trust Gardens Committee in Northern Ireland for many years. Every year the Resides would open their garden to members of the public to raise money for charity, and that was a big event in their calendar.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna BellReside
Margaret was one of the earliest female practicing solicitors in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She was well regarded and very careful in her work. She didn’t appear much in court because she suffered from a speech impediment and she would get very nervous in front of a judge. She tended to avoid court, she really concentrated on three areas, one was high court litigation, in particular contested will cases. She also had a considerable high court personal
Reside
injury practice. She was very good at getting witnesses to come to court and support the evidence of the client who was the plaintiff in the case. She never did any work for insurance cases, but always worked for the injured party. The third area was conveyancing. I started work in the practice as a solicitor in 1972. We did conveyancing, probate and wills and it was a very varied practice.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell
Graduation photograph of Margaret Fisher. She was admitted as a solicitor at 21 in 1927, taking second place in the final examination.
Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
Major Gerald Reside, pictured in uniform, served with the British Expeditionary Force, and was rescued from Dunkirk in June 1940. After returning to France with the Royal Artillery at the time of the D-Day Landings in June 1944, he saw active service in France and Belgium.
Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
Built in the 1930s, alterations were made to Killowen Cottage in the 1940s and 1950s. This photograph dates from August 1962.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
In about 1930 Gerald entered his father’s firm in Margaret Square, and carried on the practice of both architect and civil engineer. He was very keen on a number of areas, particularly the design and building of new schools and there are several schools still in the area that he designed. The most notable was Newry High School, then known as the Secondary Intermediate School that opened in the 1960s. There was also Downshire Road Primary School, and Kilbroney Primary School. They were major developments and they took up a lot of his professional time. He also advised many parishes and congregations on their church buildings and it was rare for
any of them to receive a bill. He loved his work, particularly the map making side, and was ably assisted by Jim Bingham. He also worked for private clients, people who were building their own houses or planning to extend their houses and he was famous for the soundness of his buildings.
He was also a water engineer, as my grandfather had been. My grandfather designed a dam above Rostrevor, which I think must have worked for a considerable number of years. My uncle, I know, had a scheme in Rathfriland in relation to water capture. There is a mushroom-shaped building in Rathfriland, which he designed.
He was always very busy and I think he certainly enjoyed his work. He was known as being quite formidable in talking to Clerk of Works and to builders about how they were getting on with the work, but he was fair.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna BellDeveloped from an earlier garden, the Resides took full advantage of the sheltered site at Killowen Cottage, and its well-drained and light soils. The shrubs, long-lasting perennials and flowering bulbs, which they introduced, were carefully chosen to provide an attractive year-round display with minimum maintenance. Shrubs included various types of rhododendrons and azaleas in addition to species suited to coastal areas.
Both my grandfather and uncle managed to acquire considerable numbers of documents from families and other sources relating to local history, mapping and planning, and land holdings of some of the landed families in the area. It was to the good fortune of Newry and Mourne Museum that they did that. One unfortunate event took place in 1957 when there was a serious fire in the premises at Margaret Square and that resulted in the loss of a large number of documents, which was very sad. His premises were well known in the town and were just next to where the Golden Teapot is now.
My uncle, during his earlier days in Newry, had played rugby for Newry Rugby Club. He didn’t play golf, but he was a member of Warrenpoint Golf Club. He was an enthusiastic member of Newry Rotary. After the war, he met every Tuesday with a little group of businessmen in the Imperial Hotel in Newry. That group included Myles McCann, owner of the Victoria Bakery, W.B. Hogg, the auctioneer, Frank Donnelly the solicitor and Robert Haldane of Haldane Fisher. He was a member and supporter of the USPCA and he always held an annual event for them and that was his main charity work outside of Rotary.
Apart from gardening, my aunt’s other main interest was the golf club, but her earlier sporting career outside of hockey was playing tennis and she had partnered Fred Perry in an exhibition match in Newry.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne MuseumAfter the war my uncle retained a connection with various ex-servicemen’s organisations. He would always turn out with his bowler hat and medals on Remembrance Sunday and lay the wreath at Newry War Memorial. He was a member of the British Legion and a member of the Royal Artillery Association. He was interested in reading about military tactics and had a very large library of books of memoirs by old generals and so on. He went up to Campbell College for the dinner each year and kept in contact with ex-military and veterans.
He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for County Down in 1969 and was awarded an O.B.E. in 1970 for his services to the Territorial Army. He was also a JP.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell
Designed by Major Gerald Reside, Ashgrove Secondary Intermediate School opened in September 1960. The school merged with Newry Grammar to form Newry High School in 1966.
Courtesy of William McAlpine
Margaret Reside pictured in 1956 with Lady Harcourt, wife of the Lord Mayor of Belfast. The Harcourts were clients of Fisher & Fisher solicitors.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
Gerald Reside was deeply interested in local history and devoted much of his spare time and resources to its study. He was a founder member of the Old Newry Society which was set up in the 1970s, and was instrumental in the setting up of Newry Museum which he officially opened in May 1986.
I should also point out that neither of them were particularly involved in politics. However, they were members of the Ulster Unionist Party and attended the annual general meeting each year. During his time as a Deputy Lieutenant, there was an incident at his offices in Margaret Square, where some kind of device was left at the premises and I think that was quite late on during the Troubles and meant that he didn’t go up to Newry so much after that event.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell
Major Gerald Reside, pictured centre, officially opening Newry Museum on 30 May 1986. The picture includes on left, Tony Canavan, Museum Officer and on right, Councillor Pat Toner, Chairman of Newry and Mourne District Council.
Newry and Mourne Museum Collection
Fergus Hanna Bell pictured with his mother, Mildred, at their home in Belfast in 1956.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
Margaret Reside developed macular degeneration in her eyes, and her eyesight deteriorated rapidly, but she would have been very annoyed to be asked about retirement because at 90 she was still going into the office. Gerald Reside would have had the same attitude and was pretty healthy, working right up until his 90s. He had sold his practice in his late 1980s to a local architect Rory Milligan, and the practice today is
known as Milligan, Reside and Larkin. Fisher & Fisher has also gone from strength to strength.
They both loved their garden and continued to work very hard at it. They were always concerned about the continuing Troubles and felt rather remote, in that part of south Down in which they lived.
Margaret Reside died on 20 June 1999, and Gerald two months later, on 10 August 1999.
Memories of Major Gerald Reside and Mrs Margaret Reside by their nephew, Fergus Hanna Bell
Major Gerald Reside pictured back row, second from right, in Nelson Masonic Lodge, Newry in the 1930s. He was also Lodge Treasurer and, reflecting this association and interest, the Reside Collection contains a number of items relating to the Masonic Order.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
The Reside Collection
Map drawn by Samuel Wilson Reside in the 1920s showing property belonging to the estate of R. J. McCombe along Stream Street, Talbot Street and Sandys Street, near St. Patrick’s Church in Newry. Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
The Reside Collection
A Kilmorey estate map showing the townland of Lisdrumgullion, Newry, with tenants’ names and size of holdings, dated 1781.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
Major Gerald Reside and Margaret Reside née Fisher pictured in the garden at Killowen Cottage on their wedding day in 1947. Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum
This poster published by the Irish Land Commission in 1909, sets out the regulations for removal of seaweed and other material from the shore on the Mourne estate of the Earl of Kilmorey.
Reside Collection, Newry and Mourne Museum