Edward Lee

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Preface Except for a few family stories, some correct and some which proved to be inaccurate or simply untrue, my brother Edward and I knew very little about our great-grandfather Edward Lee and his life and times. The story was simply never mentioned in the family. I really believe that our own father, Edward knew practically nothing about his grandfather. Edward Lee’s other grandsons, John and David, also seemed to know little. Perhaps at the time it was all too painful, especially for the two surviving sons, Edward (Ted) and Tennyson, to talk about the old family because that would inevitably mean talking about their two brothers, Joe and Robert Ernest, both of whom had been killed in the Great War. Their loss was an enormous tragedy for the family and something from which they never really recovered. Edward and Annie Lee had created a successful drapery business out of nothing but hard work and a will to succeed. The family and the business shone brightly for an amazing but brief time, a time that encompassed enormous upheavals in society both at home and on the world stage. During all that period, Edward Lee had a vision of his ideal of what both society and business should be. Although it was perhaps both quixotic and utopian, it was a wonderful ideal. However, it was Edward’s family that took centre stage throughout his life When the two boys died in the Great War, something in the old couple died too. You can see it in the later photographs of Edward and Annie, the light in their eyes slowly dimming. After their deaths in 1927 and 1938 respectively, the business carried on through the decades up to its eventual demise in the late 1970s when the light flickered one last time and finally died too. My older brother Edward took on a huge amount of the research and is tenacious in his endeavours to find out more. I, on the other hand, have a particular interest in the Great War and the story of the two ‘lost boys’, Joe and Robert Ernest. Their loss was a devastating blow for Edward and Annie and, I believe, fundamental to an understanding of their subsequent lives. Now, with the benefit of modern research methods, we 10 Edward Lee
are gradually piecing the family story together. However, as with most research, the more we find out, the more there is left to discover. Then there are those haunting, faded family photographs, all taken with the light of the sun over one hundred years ago. They are so tantalising - shadows long disappeared - each face looks directly at us, eye to eye, willing us to know their names. You can almost hear them shouting out from the depths of the past. Even with the best of modern technology, it is simply not possible to identify more than a handful of family and friends. We know they are there, we can almost talk to them, but who are they? It is most likely that at this remove, we will never know. And finally, there are those beautiful and moving family letters that Edward sent to his youngest son Tennyson during the Great War. Full of sadness, affection and hope, but most of all – love. Michael Lee, September 2016 Model Employer and Man of Moral Courage 11
Page 1 and 2: Edward Lee Model Employer and Man o
Page 7 and 8: Contents Foreword by Pádraig Yeate
Page 9: accommodation for his own employees
Page 13 and 14: ook by far on the 1913 Dublin Locko
Page 15 and 16: Jane, who would become Countess of
Page 17 and 18: Tyrrellspass Green 1900s. Photo was
Page 19 and 20: Edward Lee and Co Ltd Dún Laoghair
Page 21 and 22: Social Conscience Edward Lee was an
Page 23 and 24: at Dargan Street in Little Bray and
Page 25 and 26: The Grange By the early 1900s, the
Page 27 and 28: Silver Wedding Illuminated scroll 1
Page 29 and 30: America and Canada 17 which he publ
Page 31 and 32: paragraph in the next day’s issue
Page 33 and 34: his nephew Robert H. Gilbert 19 to
Page 35 and 36: Cluster of skyscrapers, New York. C
Page 37 and 38: certainly, as such, has no rival in
Page 39 and 40: dismissed. The employers held out,
Page 41 and 42: under the chairmanship of Tom Kettl
Page 43 and 44: influence those of the metropolis
Page 45 and 46: the controversy. Ironically perhaps
Page 47 and 48: ‘Bellevue’, Cross Avenue, Black
Page 49 and 50: laid his broken body in its last re
Page 51 and 52: Unknown newspaper cutting from 1915
Page 53 and 54: kind to them, Edward and Annie must
Page 55 and 56: sister. It is possible that they me
Page 57 and 58: profit for the capitalists, as some
Page 59 and 60: that any firm advertising in certai
Page 61 and 62:
Annie Lee and Tennyson Lee 1930s. E
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Deansgrange Cemetery, alongside his
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Model Employer and Man of Moral Cou
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Edward Lee

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