Parke, Thomas Heazle
Parke, Thomas Heazle (1857–93), army surgeon and African traveller, was born 27 November 1857 at Clogher House, Kilmore, Co. Roscommon, second son among ten children of William Parke, a well-to-do farmer, and Henrietta Parke (née Holmes). His ancestors were of Kentish stock. Educated…...
Patten, John
Patten, John (1774–1864), associate of Robert Emmet (qv) and librarian of the RDS, was born 16 August 1774, youngest among three children of the Rev. J. Patten (d. 1787) of Annerville, presbyterian…...
Perceval, Robert
Perceval, Robert (1756–1839), physician, chemist, traveller, and founding member of the RIA, was born 30 September 1756 in Dublin, third and youngest son of William Perceval, barrister, and his second wife, Elizabeth Perceval (née Ward; d.…...
Phillips, Molesworth
Phillips, Molesworth (1755–1832), marine officer and adventurer, was born 15 August 1755 in Swords, Co. Dublin, son of John Phillips (d. 1779), surgeon and illegitimate son of Robert Molesworth (qv), 1st Viscount Molesworth of Swords…...
Pococke, Richard
Pococke, Richard (1704–65), Church of Ireland clergyman, traveller, and antiquary, was born in Southampton, England, on 19 November 1704, son of Richard Pococke, rector of Colmer, Hampshire, and his wife Elizabeth, the only daughter of another clergyman, Isaac Milles (1639?–1720).…...
Pollard, Mary ('Paul')
Pollard, Mary ('Paul') (1922–2005), librarian, was born 5 June 1922 in Essex, the eldest of four children (three daughters and a son) of an emigrant Irish doctor, Richard Payne Pollard, MC, and his wife (née Wilkinson). She was educated at Hawnes School and then studied medicine for…...
Power, Marguerite Agnes
Power, Marguerite Agnes (1815?–1867), writer and traveller, was born in Ireland, daughter of a Col. Power. Her aunt was Marguerite Gardiner (née Power) (qv), countess of Blessington, and she later lived with her aunt at…...
Praeger, Robert Lloyd
Praeger, Robert Lloyd (1865–1953), naturalist, author, and librarian, was born 25 August 1865 at the Crescent, Holywood, Co. Down, second son among five sons and one daughter of Willem Emilius Praeger (1835–81), linen merchant, and Maria Praeger (d. 1930; née Patterson). His father, a…...
Prior, Sir James
Prior, Sir James (1790?–1869), naval surgeon and author, was born at Lisburn, Co. Antrim, son of Matthew Prior (nothing is known of his mother), and trained as a surgeon. On 22 June 1810 he sailed from Plymouth as ship's surgeon on the RN frigate …...
Quin, Michael Joseph
Quin, Michael Joseph (1796–1843), journalist and travel writer, was born in Co. Tipperary, the son of Morty Quin, a catholic distiller from Thurles. He entered TCD in 1811, but there is no record of his graduation. Called to the bar at…...
Reeves, William
Reeves, William (1815–92), Church of Ireland bishop, antiquary, and librarian, was born 16 March 1815 at his grandfather's house in Charleville, Co. Cork, eldest child among three sons and two daughters of Boles D'Arcy Reeves, solicitor, and his wife Mary (d. of cholera, 1832), daughter…...
Reid, Thomas
Reid, Thomas (1791–1825), naval surgeon and author, was one of four sons of Thomas Reid, farmer, from Cadian, near Eglish, Co. Tyrone. He received a classical education from the family pastor, the presbyterian minister Hugh Bell, before attending the Royal College of Surgeons in…...
Renehan, Laurence F.
Renehan, Laurence F. (1797/8–1857), priest, bibliophile, and president of Maynooth College 1845–57, was born at Longford Pass, in the parish of Gurtnahoe, Co. Tipperary, second son of Laurence Renehan, farmer, and Catherine Renehan (née Borden). Destined for the church from an…...
Roe, Helen Maybury
Roe, Helen Maybury (1895–1988), librarian and antiquary, was born 18 December 1895 in Mountrath, Queen's Co. (Laois), the only child of William Ernest Roe and Anne Roe (neé Lambert Shields). Her father's family had lived in the Mountrath area since the seventeenth century and her…...
Rogers, John Cecil Kelly-
Rogers, John Cecil Kelly- (1905–81), aviation pioneer, was born 8 February 1905 at Raven Lodge, Sandycove, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Co. Dublin, second child of Capt. Theodore Rogers, RN (later of the Dublin–Liverpool passenger service), and Violet…...
Sabine, Sir Edward
Sabine, Sir Edward (1788–1883), soldier, polar explorer, and physicist, was born 14 October 1788 in Great Britain St. (Parnell St.), Dublin, youngest of five sons and four daughters of Joseph Sabine and his wife Sarah, daughter of Rowland Hunt of Shropshire. He was the great-…...
Sadleir, George Forster
Sadleir, George Forster (1789–1859), army officer and explorer, was born 19 January 1789 in Cork, third son of James Sadleir, cotton manufacturer and sheriff of Cork (1791), of Tipperary and later Shannon Vale House, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, and his wife Joanna, daughter of George Forster…...
Sampson, John
Sampson, John (1862–1931), scholar and librarian, was born 25 February 1862 in Schull, Co. Cork, third child and eldest of three sons of James Sampson, metallurgical chemist and mining engineer born in Cornwall of a long Cornish lineage, and Sarah Anne Sampson (née Macdermott), who…...
Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry
Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry (1874–1922), sailor and Antarctic explorer, was born 15 February 1874 at Kilkea House, Kilkea, Co. Kildare, second child and eldest son of Henry Shackleton, gentleman farmer and later a physician, and his wife Henrietta Letitia Sophia, daughter of Henry John…...
Simms, Samuel
Simms, Samuel (1894–1967) medical doctor, bibliophile, and local historian, was born in Belfast, son of Rev. S. Simms of 22 Oldpark Crescent. After attending RBAI from 1905, he was a brilliant scholar in the school of…...
Singer, Paul
Singer, Paul (1911–85), philatelist, was born 31 July 1911 in Bratislava, Slovakia, son of Auriel Singer, financier. The family moved to Vienna in 1925 where he was educated at high school before studying French and international law in Paris. He later graduated…...
Sloane, Sir Hans
Sloane, Sir Hans (1660–1753), physician-general, collector, and founder of the British Museum, was born 16 April 1660 at Killyleagh, Co. Down, youngest of seven sons (of whom only three survived infancy) of Alexander Sloane (d. 1666), receiver-general of taxes for Co. Down, and…...
Stephenson, Patrick Joseph
Stephenson, Patrick Joseph (1895–1960), librarian and Irish Volunteer, was born on 10 April 1895 at 25 Upper Tyrone Street, in Dublin's north inner city, the second of nine children (four girls and five boys) of Patrick Stephenson, a coachman, and his wife Alice (née Tynan). The family…...
Stewart, Samuel Alexander
Stewart, Samuel Alexander (1826–1910), botanist and curator, was born 5 February 1826 at North Front St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, the only son among two children of William Stewart and his wife Sarah (née Funston) who died when Samuel and his younger (and only) sister…...
Strzelecki, Sir Paul Edmund de
Strzelecki, Sir Paul Edmund de (1797–1873), explorer and humanitarian, was born 20 July 1797 into the Polish aristocracy in Prussian-occupied Poland, the son of Francis Strzelecki and his wife Anna (née Raczynski). The family went into exile in the UK in the early 1800s. Strzelecki was…...