EARLS FAMILY CHRONICLES

© Christopher Earls Brennen

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE CHILDREN OF JOHN EARLS AND MARY ARNOLD

       
Left: John Earls and his wife Mary and their children Arnold, May, Irene and Muriel (c.1924).
Center: Three generations: Arnold, John and James Earls.    Right: Arnold and Biddy Earls.

Arnold Earls was born at 147 Clifton Park Avenue, Belfast on Aug.10, 1904. He first attended the National School adjoining Ballynafeigh Methodist Church where his great uncle John Mercer was the manager and a trustee. Then at the age of about ten he won a scholarship to The Methodist College, Belfast (the first from his school to do so) which he attended subsequently winning a scholarship to Queen's University, Belfast. There he studied electrical engineering, the classes for which were held in the Belfast Technical College. He was also very active in the social life of Queen's and became president of the popular Literific Society. After graduation he first worked on a college apprenticeship for Metropolitan Vickers (power stations, etc.) in Manchester, England. During this time he lived in Cheshire. After this apprenticeship he was employed by the Electricity Board in Northern Ireland and was stationed in Omagh, County Tyrone. Later he was transferred to Banbridge. On Jun. 12, 1931, he married Helen Maud Lucy Northridge at St. John's Church of Ireland in Malone, Belfast. Helen, who was always known as ``Biddy'', was born in Dublin on Apr.17, 1905, the second daughter of Rev. John Northridge and his wife Lydia (nee Ward) of Cherry Hill, Malone Road, Belfast. Arnold's next appointment was as Borough Engineer in charge of the generation and distribution of electrical power in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland. The younger two children were born in Rothesay where the family lived at ``Glenshira'', Crichton Road. When the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board took over in 1951, Arnold applied for and was appointed Chief Engineer for electrical power production in Nigeria. There they lived in Ikoyi, Lagos where Biddy taught at the King's School. She was also quite ill for a time. After about four years Arnold became involved in a dispute with the Nigerian government over the appointment of a black Nigerian as the engineer in charge of one of their power stations. Arnold did not consider him qualified for the post. He resigned because of this dispute and returned to Northern Ireland. After legal proceedings he did receive compensation for the Nigerian affair. After a brief stay in Whitehead, County Antrim, Arnold and Biddy bought a house in Myrtlefield Park, Belfast. In 1959 Arnold bought an electrical supply business in partnership with his eldest son, John. A few years later they sold this business which was located in Cromac Street, Belfast. Arnold was a very literary man and a great reader. After their second son, Patrick, was tragically drowned Biddy taught science in Victoria College, Belfast. From 1975 to 1979 they lived in Australia to which their eldest son, John, had emigrated; they were accompanied by Biddy's unmarried sister, Vera Northridge. They even comtemplated emigration but decided against it. Biddy died in Bangor on Dec.14, 1984, and Arnold lived with her sister, Vera, in Belfast until Vera died in 1985. Arnold died on Apr.29, 1987, in the City Hospital, Belfast, and was buried in Knockbreda graveyard in Belfast.

Margaret Elizabeth May Earls was born at 111 Fitzroy Avenue, Belfast on May 4, 1906. She first attended the National School adjoining Ballynafeigh Methodist Church in Belfast where her great-uncle, John Mercer, was the manager and a trustee. At the age of about ten she went to Methodist College, Belfast and subsequently received a scholarship to Queen's University, Belfast where she studied English literature. She had a real literary bent and won the McMullen medal for her essays two years running; several articles she wrote were published in ``Punch''. She also became president of the Women's Student Hall and was active in the university Dramatic Society. Among other productions she appearred with Raymond Calvert in ``Magic'' by G.K.Chesterton on the stage of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin. After graduating with honours she taught at the Intermediate School in Lisburn and also taught part-time at the Belfast Technical College. On Apr.8, 1931, she was married to Hugh Gault Calwell at Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Belfast. Hugh Calwell was the eldest son of Dr. William Calwell of 100 York Street, Belfast. Hugh Calwell was born on Dec.13, 1901 in Duncairn Gardens, Belfast, and graduated from Queens University in both Ancient Classics (in 1924) and Medicine (in 1929). He then joined the Colonial Medical Service and served in Tanganyika, becoming a specialist in the control of Trypanonsomiasis. Much of his work was in the remote African bush. He and his wife Margaret enjoyed Africa and their two eldest children, John and Margaret, were born there. During the Second World War he served in the King's African Rifles, the East African Medical Corps, and in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The family's journey home in 1940 was a difficult one; Hugh was seriously ill with dysentry and their ship was part of a convoy in which three ships were sunk by German submarines. During the war they bought a small cottage near Newcastle, County Down. Their daughter, Margaret, owns this property today and is building a house there. In 1949 they bought a house on the sea front in Whitehead, County Antrim. After the Colonial Service Hugh worked for the Northern Ireland Tuberculosis Authority, retiring in 1966. Subsequently he wrote several books and articles on subjects related to the history of the Belfast Medical School and has been the honorary archivist to the Royal Victoria Hospital. For this work he was awarded an honorary D.Sc. by Queens University in 1984. Hugh died on Feb.28, 1986, at Marine Parade, Whitehead. Margaret died a short time later in Whiteabbey Hospital and is buried in Islandmagee.

   
Left: Muriel and Irene Earls about 1939. Right: Raymond Calvert about 1939.

Lilian Irene Mercer Earls, the primary author of this chronicle, was born on Feb.10, 1909, at 111 Fitzroy Avenue, Belfast. She first attended the National School adjoining Ballynafeigh Methodist Church, Belfast, and later Methodist College, Belfast (MCB). Leaving school at the age of 18 she worked for some years in various stores (among them, Riddel's), before going to Queen's University, Belfast in 1933 to read Economics and Philosophy. After graduating in 1936, she worked for her former headmaster at MCB, and helped in the compilation of the Methodist College Register. At the outbreak of war in 1939 she applied for and was subsequently appointed as Chief Welfare Officer in Northern Ireland, working as a civil servant, first in the Ministry of Home Affairs and later the Ministry of Health, to resettle refugees, including the large number evacuated from Gibraltar to Northern Ireland. She resigned in 1944 to contest at the wish of many friends and supporters a by-election for the Northern Ireland House of Commons, and was elected in 1945 at the General Election as an Independent. During her two terms, 1945-49 and 1949-53, she took a particular interest in the passage of badly needed social and welfare legislation. In 1950 she joined the Ulster Weaving Company, of which she became a Managing Director, building up their substantial institutional sales of sheets etc. to hospitals and other organizations. In 1964 she took up a new contract as Development Manager to Ostlanna Iompair Eireann, the hotel subsiduary of CIE (the Irish transport organization), retiring in 1970. In 1965-66 she became the first woman to be elected President of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, the oldest such body outside the United States. Among her many other duties, she served for some thirteen years as a member of the Senate and Board of Curators of Queen's University, Belfast. She now lives at 219 Shanganagh Cliffs, Shankill, County Dublin. On Sept.7, 1934 in Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Belfast, Irene married Raymond Colville Calvert, the only son and second child of William Henderson Calvert (1865-1952) and Barbara (nee Williamson) (1865-1938). Raymond was born at Banchory House, Helen's Bay, County Down, on Oct.30, 1906 and was educated at Bangor Grammar School and Queen's University, Belfast, where he took his degree in English in 1927 at the age of 20. He was a leading member of the University Dramatic Society, and it was for a cast party in 1926 that he composed ``The Ballad of William Bloat'', which has so firmly become part of Irish folklore that some well-known literary critics have erroneously believed it to be a traditional ballad. It was first published in a collection called Brave Crack in 1950 and more recently in an illustrated edition by the Blackstaff Press; as a song it has been recorded in the United States by the Clancy Brothers. Raymond had hoped to take up a theatrical career, but after working at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, and with Hylton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, had to return to Belfast to enter the family business, Taylor Calvert and Co., Royal Avenue, as a stockbroker. In the 1940s two radio plays of his, ``On the Cliff'' and ``I don't pretend to ...'', were produced in Belfast, as were several talks on Northern Ireland. He died suddenly of a long-standing heart condition on July 11, 1959, at Banchory House, and was buried in Bangor Cemetary. Raymond and Irene Calvert had one son:

Muriel Maud Earls, the mother of CEB, was born at ``Earlsdale'', 31 Ravenhill Park, Belfast on March 8, 1914. She first attended Cooke Centenary School at the end of Park Road, Belfast and unlike her brother and sisters attended Victoria College, Belfast. There she excelled at sport, particularly track and field hockey. Indeed she played on the school hockey team for seven consecutive years, a record which still stands today. After her mother died in 1929 she lived only briefly with her father at ``Earlsdale'', 27 Lismoyne Park, Belfast before graduating from high school and entering Queen's University, Belfast. She then went to live with her aunt, Anne Earls, in the latter's house not far from the university. Muriel attended Queen's for only two years; her father's death in 1934 and her inability to pass Latin contributed to her decision to leave the university. About 1933 she went to work for McAlisters, a fashion store in Belfast, and worked there until her marriage in 1939. She began in the sales department and advanced to the organization of large weddings and other affairs. During the thirties Muriel continued to play hockey and represented Ulster on a number of occasions. On Dec.20, 1939 she married Wilfred Macauley Brennen at the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Belfast. Wilfred Brennen was born on Oct.6, 1911, the oldest son and second child of Cecil and Anne Brennen of University Avenue, Belfast. He studied medicine at Queen's University where with the three Earls sisters, Raymond Calvert and Wilfred's sister, Dorothy, he was also active in the University Dramatic Society. After graduation he became a tutor in surgery and a registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. In 1944 Wilfred became the consultant surgeon at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt, County Derry; indeed he was largely responsible for the initial organizing of that hospital. At the same time Muriel and Wilfred and their two eldest sons bought an old Georgian manor house in Magherafelt which they called ``Cranagh Dhu''. In addition to presiding over the growth of the Mid-Ulster Hospital, Wilfred was very active in community and national affairs. He was a founder member and later chairman of the Northern Ireland Marriage Guidance Council. He was also a commander in the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. He was always interested in the Boy Scouts and eventually became the Chief Commissioner of Scouts for Northern Ireland. In recognition of all his services on behalf of the youth of Northern Ireland he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's birthday honours list in 1971. As a result of their fourth child, Paula, having Down's syndrome, Muriel and Wilfred spent a great deal of time and effort in later life trying to improve the lot of mentally handicapped children. But they also found time to enjoy the sporting activities which they both loved. Muriel excelled at both tennis and, later, golf. She played tennis for County Derry and later won many local golf competitions. Wilfred also enjoyed golf and took the family on several skiing holidays in the Alps. He had a lifelong interest in painting and many of his paintings now hang in his son's houses. In 1959 they purchased a house called ``Silverbay'' on the coast just outside Portstewart and the family spent the summer at this house for many years thereafter. It had a beautiful view overlooking the ocean. After suffering several strokes, Wilfred died on Feb.26, 1987, and is buried next to the First Presbyterian Church in Magherafelt. Muriel died on Feb.23, 2007, and is buried beside him.

Last updated 1/30/2018.

Christopher E. Brennen