This is my uncle getting ready to water ski on Carlingford Lough in 1969; no wetsuits in those days. I took the picture and if there’s a bit of a wobble it’s because I was timid about following him into the icy waters.
If I ever knew I forgot there was a Lord Carlingford. He represented Co Louth at Westminster when he was Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue. C P-F was elected to parliament in 1847 as a Liberal and became a junior Lord of the Treasury in 1854 and went onwards and upwards becoming Lord Privy Seal, Lord President of the Council and a Knight of the Order of St Patrick. In 1874 he was created Baron Carlingford and, to those that have, more shall be given, became Lord Clermont on his brother’s death in 1887. He briefly overlapped with Patrick Bellew as an MP but was in the Commons on and off with Montesquieu Bellew until 1865. Montesquieu, Patrick’s younger brother, was also a junior Lord of the Treasury. Both titles became extinct upon his death in 1898.
But we digress. Lord Carlingford came to my attention on Sunday when I saw this inscription in Bow – that’s in the East End.
THIS STATUE IS THE GIFT TO THE EAST OF LONDON OF THEODORE H BRYANT AND WAS UNVEILED AUGUST 9TH 1882 BY Rt HONble LORD CARLINGFORD
I feel sorry for Theodore Bryant whose name is barely legible, although he paid for it. Lucky Lord Carlingford’s name is unbesmirched. The statue is of Gladstone whose advocacy of Irish Home Rule made him popular with the Irish in the East End. However, like so many politicians, he misread the mood when, in 1871, he allowed his Chancellor to propose a tax on matches – a halfpenny a hundred. This did not go down well with Bryant & May – their match factory was in Bow. They mobilised protesters and the tax was never imposed.
Take a look at the Grand Old Man’s extended right hand; rather red, what? It was cleaned for the Olympics but it has become a tradition to keep it red. When the statue was commissioned it was falsely put around that the match girls in the B&M factory had money docked from their wages to pay for it. It is true that working conditions for match girls were far from ideal; indeed they probably didn’t have a shilling to contribute and Theodore Bryant made a shedload out of their efforts but they did not pay for Gladstone’s statue. An interesting aside is that Gladstone was alive in 1882 when it was unveiled – he died in 1898. This was unusual in the 19th century but not unique.
I went especially to Bow to see something else, so this whole post is a digression, albeit of interest to me.
I didn’t know about Lord Carlingford, but I remember the freezing water of Carlingford harbour, the instruction to “slide in now”, and while you were still gasping for breath, and with someone’s feet under your armpits, there was a cry of “hit it” to the speedboat driver, resulting in my case in an instant head plant into the harbour. Perhaps why I was nervous of water skiing ever after…