From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 2 - Corglass
Reynolds VC Postscript
Postscript
In his will, drawn up about two years before his death, James Henry's personal belongings and investments amounted to just over £19,000. At today’s values, this is about £1.6 million. As his address was given as the Army and Navy Club and Rubens Hotel in Westminster, it appears that he did not own any property, though he may have had an interest in the Dalystown estate in Longford.
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One of the executors of his will was John Forbes O’Ferrall, the husband of his niece Mary Davys. He was one of the leading solicitors in Co. Longford and from 1896 he served as Clerk of the Crown and Peace and Local Registrar of Titles for Co. Longford.
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After bequests for a tombstone and masses for his soul, he left £2,200 5% War Stock on trust for the two daughters of his son Percy, and the residue of his property, including his interest in the estates of his late father and brother, to his daughter Elizabeth Ann Lloyd.
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If it is true that he was estranged from his sons, he nevertheless recognised Percy’s children, his granddaughters Cecilia and Kathleen. His eldest son George had died in 1916 without issue, but Henry was still alive in 1930 when the will as drawn up, aged about 45; he is not mentioned in the will. His daughter Elizabeth Ann received the bulk of his assets and lived until 1956.
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Nearly 70 years after his death, another reminder of James Henry’s courage was evoked when a collection of his surgical tools used during the battle at Rorke’s Drift was auctioned at Spink’s auction house in London in 2001. It included a wooden medicine chest, a pair of Gladstone bags, several fragile glass phials containing unused ointments and medicine, and leather pocket cases containing various surgical instruments. It also contained an 18th century pocket watch given to him by his grandfather. The collection was being sold by a family friend given them by his daughter Elizabeth Ann. Due to its direct association with the events of Rorke’s Drift, it was expected to fetch in the region of £22,000 but actually realised £41,000.
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The Victoria Cross and South Africa campaign medal had previously been on loan from the family to the Museum of Military Medicine at Mychett, Surrey. In November 2022 they were acquired by Lord Ashcroft and are now displayed in the Ashcroft Gallery of the Imperial War Museum alongside the medals of John Chard VC and Robert Jones VC.
