Edward Lee

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Edward and Annie had nine children: Edward Shackleton, known as Ted, George Johnston (born 1880), Robert Ernest, known as Ernest (born 1883), Hastings (born 1884), William (born 1885) Joseph Bagnall (born 1888), Annie (born 1891), Alfred Tennyson, known as Tennyson (born 1892) and quite a bit later, Geoffrey Patrick (born 1906). Sadly, in a time of high infant mortality, five of the infants died soon after birth, including their only daughter Annie. Tennyson was the youngest of the surviving children and was doted on by his mother. A typical Victorian middle class woman, Annie loved poetry. Her favourite poet was the Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson. He died on the 6th October 1892. This was also the day that the new Lee child was born. In honour of the famed poet, Edward and Annie named their new son Alfred Tennyson Lee. All the children were baptised in Bray Methodist Church, on Florence Road. The church was only a few yards from the family home and the family were regular attenders there, Edward Lee even presiding at religious meetings from time to time. The boys were pupils at St. Andrew’s, a Presbyterian school in Bray. To his four sons, Edward was known as the ‘governor’. But this was only out of respect for his status as their father. Indeed, what shines through in his later letters to Tennyson is the love and affection he had for his family. This paternal attitude was extended to his dealings with his employees. In 1893, Edward Lee was admitted into the Grand Lodge of Ireland Freemasons. A southern Unionist, Edward was also a fiercely proud Irishman. The business grew rapidly and in the next few years shops were opened in Rathmines and Mary Street in Dublin. A wholesale warehouse and offices operated from Abbey Street and, not forgetting his roots, Edward Lee also opened a small shop in Tyrrellspass. As the Bray store became more successful and required more space, the family moved to No.2 Wyndham Park Road in 1901. This was a solid middle class, Edwardian, red bricked, terraced house and quite a step up from living over the shop in Goldsmith Terrace. In 1904, the business became a private limited company. The Board of Directors was appointed from the managers of the various shops. 20 Edward Lee
Social Conscience Edward Lee was an astute and shrewd businessman, but he also possessed a strong social conscience and was always concerned for the welfare of his staff, his principle being, ‘a good day’s pay for a good day’s work’. 3 To this end, in 1889, he initiated a half day holiday for all his staff on Thursdays, later changed to Wednesdays on foot of the Shops Act, 1912. He was the first employer in Ireland to do this. He firmly believed that the working day should be shortened if possible and said, ‘Where long hours are worked on Saturdays some compensation should be given by concession on another day of the week and therefore in itself, it was but an act of simple justice’. 4 He also initiated a system of profit sharing for all his employees. ‘The bonus, or rather, profit sharing system, is my highest ideal of what a business ought to be’. 5 He was concerned with the desperate plight of the less well off and to this end he entered local politics in Bray. He was elected a member of the Bray Urban District Council (UDC) in 1900 on the Unionist ticket. In the council elections of 1903, he topped the poll with 303 votes. In a newspaper article in 1903, the following was noted: ‘Mr. Lee has been upon the side of the people invariably and there is no member of the community who will not give him credit for the tenacity with which he has held to his democratic convictions. He has been consistent in his efforts to abolish slumdom and to enable the workingmen of his town to enjoy decent and sanitary homes. On many political questions we were not in accord with Mr. Lee, but upon the great question of the uplifting of the masses and the amelioration of their condition we find Mr. Lee far more advanced than many with whom we agree in politics’. 6 In 1906, at the instigation of Lord Powerscourt, he was made a Justice of the Peace (J.P.). As a member of Bray UDC, Edward Lee actively promoted the erection of houses for the working people of that town, believing that, ‘it is the first duty of the council to have the poor properly housed’. 7 Housing schemes 3 Wicklow Newsletter. 19/2/1927 4 Unattributed newspaper clipping in Lee family archive, on the occasion of Edward and Annie Lee’s silver wedding anniversary in 1903. 5 ibid 6 ibid 7 Irish Times. 3/10/1905 Model Employer and Man of Moral Courage 21
Page 1 and 2: Edward Lee Model Employer and Man o
Page 7 and 8: Contents Foreword by Pádraig Yeate
Page 9 and 10: accommodation for his own employees
Page 11 and 12: are gradually piecing the family st
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: Edward Lee and Co Ltd Dún Laoghair
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
Page 63 and 64: 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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