Wellesley (Wesley), Arthur
Wellesley (Wesley), Arthur (1769–1852), 1st duke of Wellington , soldier and politician, was born 1 May 1769 at Mornington House, 6 Merrion Street, Dublin, the third surviving son of Garret Wesley (qv) (1735–81), 1st earl of Mornington, and…...
Wesley, Garrett
Wesley, Garrett (1735–81), amateur musician, politician, and 1st earl of Mornington , was born 19 July 1735, probably at Dangan Castle, Co. Meath, the only surviving son of Richard Wesley (originally Colley), later 1st Baron Mornington, and Elizabeth Wesley (née Sale). Educated by…...
Whelan, Mary Elizabeth Morosini-
Whelan, Mary Elizabeth Morosini- (1923–2011), dancing teacher, was born on 23 February 1923 in Dublin, the third of five children of Joseph Whelan, a dancing teacher, and his wife Violetta (née Morosini), who was born in Verona, Italy. Violetta Morosini had trained as a concert…...
White, Harold R. (‘Dermot Macmurrough’)
White, Harold R. (‘Dermot Macmurrough’) (1872–1943), music journalist and composer, was born 12 January 1872 in Dublin, son of Edgar White, an engineer and surveyor. Possessed of a fine treble voice, he served as a chorister in Christ Church cathedral from 1881 to 1887 and…...
White, Harry
White, Harry (1916–89), IRA activist, was born in Blackwater Street off the Grosvenor Road in west Belfast, one of ten children (five sons and five daughters) of Billy White, water technician with Belfast Corporation, and his wife Kathleen (née McKane). White's paternal grandfather and…...
White, James Robert (‘Jack’)
White, James Robert (‘Jack’) (1879–1946), soldier and anarchist, was born in May 1879 in Broughshane, near Ballymena, Co. Antrim, only son among five children of Field-marshal Sir George Stuart White, an Anglo-Irish landowner and distinguished soldier, and his wife Amy, daughter of…...
Wickham, Sir Charles George
Wickham, Sir Charles George (1879–1971), soldier and policeman, was born 1 September 1879 at Chestnut Grove, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, fourth son of William Wickham Wickham and Katherine Henta Wickham. He was educated at Harrow School and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.…...
Williams, Charles Frederick
Williams, Charles Frederick (1838–1904), journalist and war correspondent, was born 4 May 1838 in Coleraine, Co. Londonderry. His parents' names are unknown, but he claimed to be descended paternally from Worcestershire yeomen (of Tenbury and Mamble), and maternally from Ulster Scots…...
Wilmot, Sir Charles
Wilmot, Sir Charles (1570/71–1643/4), 1st Viscount Wilmot of Athlone , English soldier and governor of Connacht, was son and heir of Edward Wilmot of Culham, Oxfordshire, England, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Stafford of Bradfield, Berkshire. He matriculated at…...
Wilson, James Walter
Wilson, James Walter (1922–2005), composer, was born 27 September 1922 in Islington, London, England, youngest of three sons of Edgar Wilson (d. 1926/7), a pharmacist, and his wife Margaret (née Eldridge) (d. 1954), who managed the family pharmacy after her husband's death. Educated at…...
Wilson, Sir Henry Hughes
Wilson, Sir Henry Hughes (1864–1922), 1st baronet, soldier, and politician, was born 5 May 1864 at his family home at Currygrane, near Ballinalee, Co. Longford, the second son of four sons and three daughters of James Wilson, a landowner, and his wife, Constance Grace Martha Wilson…...
Wilson, Walter Gordon
Wilson, Walter Gordon (1874–1957), engineer and inventor of the tank, was born 21 April 1874 at his family's home, Dunardagh, Temple Road, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, fifth son of George Orr Wilson, barrister, and Annie Wilson (née Shaw). Educated as a naval cadet at…...
Wingfield, Sir Richard
Wingfield, Sir Richard (1551?–1634), 1st Viscount Powerscourt and soldier, was eldest son of Sir Richard Wingfield, governor of Portsmouth, and his wife Christian Fitzwilliam of Milton. He was born into a family with a strong martial tradition: his brothers and uncles bore arms for…...
Winter, Sir Ormonde de l'Épée
Winter, Sir Ormonde de l'Épée (1875–1962), soldier, director of intelligence, and deputy chief of police in Ireland, was born 15 January 1875 at Sutton Court Lodge, Chiswick, west London, youngest of five children of W. H. Winter, GPO…...
Wogan, Edward
Wogan, Edward (c.1625–1654), soldier, was third son of Nicholas Wogan of Blackhall, Co. Kildare, and his wife Margaret, daughter of William Holywood of Herbertstown, Co. Meath. The family originated from Pembrokeshire, and the Irish branch retained close contacts with their…...
Wogan, Sir Charles
Wogan, Sir Charles (1698?–1757?), ‘the Chevalier Wogan’, soldier, Jacobite, and man of letters, was born in Rathcoffey, Co. Kildare, second son of William Wogan and Anne Wogan (née Gaydon). He passed most of his boyhood in Kildare but also spent some time in Windsor, England, where…...
Wolfe, George
Wolfe, George (1859–1941), soldier, landowner, antiquarian, and politician, was born 16 December 1859 at Bishopland, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare, younger son among two sons and one daughter of Theobald George Samuel Wolfe (1815–72), landowner, of Bishopland and Forenaghts, Naas…...
Wolseley, Garnet Joseph
Wolseley, Garnet Joseph (1833–1913), Viscount Wolseley , British army field-marshal, was born 4 June 1833 at Golden Bridge House, Co. Dublin, eldest son of Maj. Garnet Joseph Wolseley (d. 1840), late of the 25th Borderers, and his wife Frances Anne (d. 1883), daughter of William…...
Wolseley, William
Wolseley, William (1640–97), soldier and politician, was the youngest of five sons (there were also six daughters) of Sir Robert Wolseley, 1st baronet, of Wolseley, Staffordshire, and his wife, Mary Wolseley (née Wroughton), daughter of Sir George Wroughton, knight, of Walcot,…...
Wood, Charles
Wood, Charles (1866–1926), composer and musical academic, was born 15 June 1866 at Armagh city, fifth child and third son of Charles Wood, tenor lay vicar choral of St Patrick's cathedral, Armagh, and Jemima Wood (née Taylor), both of 11 Vicars’ Hill, Armagh. Of their fourteen…...
Woods, Philip James
Woods, Philip James (1880–1961), soldier and politician, was born in Belfast on 23 September 1880, son of Hugh Woods, clerk, of St John's, Hillsborough, Co. Down, and Emily Catherine Woods, granddaughter of Sir John Fuleston, of Flintshire, Wales. He was educated at the…...
Woodward, Richard
Woodward, Richard (c.1743–1777), composer, was born in England, son of Richard Woodward, choirmaster; his mother's name is not known. In 1751 he moved to Ireland when his father was appointed a stipendiary of the choir at Christ Church cathedral, Dublin. He became an…...
Worcester, Philip of
Wynne, Owen
Wynne, Owen (1665–1737), soldier and politician, was third son of Col. Owen Wynne of Lurganboy, Co. Leitrim, and his wife Catherine, daughter of Sir John Hamilton, 2nd Baron Strabane and earl of Abercorn. Wynne entered TCD on 10 May…...
Yeats, Gráinne
Yeats, Gráinne (1925–2013), harpist, singer, teacher and historian, was born on 14 April 1925 in Dublin, the youngest child of Patrick Sarsfield ('P. S.') O'Hegarty (qv) and Wilhelmina (Mina) Rebecca (née Smyth). Both…...