Identity area
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Title
Date(s)
- 1867-1924 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
140 pp.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Charles Henry Gubbins was born at Woodstown, Lisnagry, county Limerick on 16 August 1859 as the fourth son of provision merchant and justice of the peace William Gough Gubbins (1820-1902) and his first wife Mary née Russell (d. 1874). The family later moved to Castle Troy, county Limerick and subsequently lived at Castleconnell, county Limerick. Charles was educated at St John’s College, Newport, county Limerick and Abbey School, county Tipperary, and followed his father into the merchant trade, working for the food company Messrs W. J. Shaw and Sons in Limerick.
In his free time, Charles Henry Gubbins was a keen cyclist and athlete. Between 1881 and 1887, he served as honorary secretary to the Limerick Amateur Athletic and Bicycle Club. He was a popular figure in social circles with a cheerful disposition and a good sense of humour. He possessed a good singing voice, played the cornet with notable skill and was an enthusiastic amateur thespian, appearing regularly both in concerts and plays.
In 1889, Charles moved to Cork to manage the firm’s branch in that city. It was probably here that he met his future wife, Martha Banyer Trew, whom he married in Cheddar, England on 2 February 1898. In 1900, Charles was promoted to the charge of W. J. Shaw & Sons’ head office in Manchester, in which city he remained for the rest of his life. He died in Manchester on 31 December 1932.
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Content and structure area
Scope and content
Bound hardback scrapbook embossed on the front cover ‘Amusing Scraps & My Records 1881 – C. H. Gubbins’. The scrapbook contains press cuttings relating to sports, especially activities of the Limerick Amateur Athletic and Bicycle Club, Cork Amateur Athletic Club and English and Irish championship meetings of athletic sports. Many of the press cuttings contain references to Charles or his brothers. Of particular interest is a lengthy newspaper article entitled ‘A Bicycle Tour in France’, written by Charles Henry Gubbins and published in the Limerick Chronicle on 16 October 1880. Pasted alongside the article are comic sketches involving penny-farthings and a very fine photograph of a man standing in front of a penny-farthing. The book further contains humorous accounts reported in newspapers; comic poems, limericks and other ditties; and comic sketches cut out from magazines, including one entitled ‘Limerick Races 1880 Election Stakes’ featuring ‘Trade ridden by Sellors, Whig Hack ridden by Connolly and Political Ass ridden by Ellard’. Also contained in the scrapbook are sports and theatre programmes (many of the latter featuring Charles Henry Gubbins in various roles); reviews of concerts and plays; and descriptions and programmes of fancy dress and other balls, including a detailed and lengthy account of one held at Adare Manor in 1893. Items of a more personal note have also been included on the pages of the scrapbook, such as photographs, letters and covers of envelopes; obituaries of Charles’ athlete friends and press cuttings relating to his promotion first to Cork and later to Manchester, his wedding and the birth of his first child. A short play entitled ‘Castle Spectre’ alongside programmes of Christy Minstrels’ Entertainment at the Theatre Royal in aid of Barrington’s Hospital in 1885 and 1887 can also be found in the book.
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This item requires conservation treatment and is too fragile to be safely handled.
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Note
This item contains racial imagery which is considered inappropriate today and which viewers may find offensive.