From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 2 - Corglass
Reynolds VC of Rorke's Drift
The Defence of Rorke's Drift, by Alphonse de Neuville (1880). Reynolds is shown in the centre of the painting, tending to a wounded soldier
Britain’s imperial wars may no longer be remembered with pride, but at the height of the Empire they generated stories of heroism and gallantry that sustained the belief in the benign intentions and outcomes of the colonial enterprise. One such story is that of James Henry Reynolds, who won the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious military decoration awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy” and achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army.
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Reynolds is a fairly common name in the Irish midlands, and several branches of the family feature in our story. Unfortunately, the evidence trail to link this James Henry Reynolds to our family disappears in that dark period before 1800, but there is just enough circumstantial detail to create a plausible story, and for us to claim (however tenuously) some association with a man who was feted as a hero in his lifetime, who was portrayed in an ever-popular war movie and whose exploits are still deemed worthy of recalling.
The link is indeed distant, and unproven, but my guess is that Laurence Reynolds of Ballinalee who married Annie Kate Brady, niece of Brigid Brady Boyle of Corglass, was James Henry’s first cousin once removed.
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Moreover, James Henry’s story exemplifies the emergence of a new class in late 19th century Ireland as the descendants of dispossessed tenants and downtrodden peasantry seized opportunities to prosper and achieve positions of status and respect formerly closed to them.
James Reynolds in 1868, soon after he joined the Royal Army Medical corps
The bare facts can be simply stated. James Henry Reynolds was born in 1844 to Laurence Reynolds, a wealthy businessman and later, owner of a substantial estate in Longford. On qualifying as a doctor at Trinity College Dublin in 1867, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a surgeon. An early posting to India earned him a commendation for his work in handling a cholera epidemic, and a promotion to Surgeon.
By the 1870s he is in southern Africa, where he served in various expeditions to assert British control of the region. But it is in the Zulu War of 1879 that the actions for which he is remembered took place.
Rorke's Drift
The story of Rorke’s Drift and Reynolds’ part in it is told in the film Zulu, 1964, with Patrick Magee playing the part of Reynolds, in the book The Rorke's Drift Doctor" by Lee Stevenson (2001). ISBN 0-954 1963-0-9 and on an RTE radio documentary Zulus and the Victoria Cross, Sunday 24 Oct 1999. Websites include: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rorke%27s_Drift and https://www.1879zuluwar.com/t282-surgeon-major-james-henry-reynolds
Having invaded Zululand, a British force of nearly 2,000 was attacked and virtually annihilated by the Zulu army at Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, its worst defeat against an indigenous foe equipped with vastly inferior military technology. Rorke's Drift, a fortified trading and mission station a few miles from the battle was being used as a supply depot and hospital. Reynolds was one of three officers and 150 British and colonial troops garrisoned there, who withstood the attack of a four thousand-strong section of the Zulu army.
Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to individual defenders, including Reynolds and the other two officers, Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead. From the British perspective, the actions of these officers and their men saved the colony of Natal from invasion by the rush of the triumphant army of Zulus under King Cetshwayo.
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Reynold’s citation was as follows:
"For the conspicuous bravery during the attack at Rorke's Drift on January 22nd and 23rd, 1879, which he exhibited in his constant attention to the wounded under fire, and in his voluntarily conveying ammunition from the store to the defenders of the hospital, whereby he exposed himself to a cross-fire from the enemy both in going and returning."
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Honours and promotions followed. He received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin, the Gold Medal of the British Medical Association and was made a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He remained in the army until retiring in 1896 after 27 years’ service with the rank of Brigade Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel. He remained active, however, and was made medical administrator of the Royal Army Clothing Factory in Pimlico, London.
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In 1929 he attended a 50th anniversary dinner to commemorate the Zulu War, held in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords at which the Prince of Wales presided, and by the time of his death in 1932 aged 88, he was the oldest surviving holder of the Victoria Cross.
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His requiem mass at the Church of SS Peter and Edward, Palace Street, Westminster, was attended by military dignitaries as well as his surviving family members. The burial took place at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
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_-_The_Defence_of_Rorke's_Drift_-_RCIN.jpg)
Detail from The Defence of Rorke's Drift by Lady Butler (1880), showing Reynolds (centre, in white pith helmet) and Storekeeper Byrne tend to the wounded Corporal Scammell (Reynolds kneeling; Byrne falling, shot).
