When your number’s up

EYE ON THE PAST
By Tom Cox
I RECENTLY came by a list of vehicle registrations for the Queen’s County in 1911, courtesy of Enda McEvoy in Abbeyleix library, and it makes for very interesting reading.

The listings are published in the Irish Motorists Handbook which, Enda tells me, was an official document of the day. In 1911, the vehicle registration code letters for the Queen’s County were C I and the honour, if that is what it was, of having the vehicle registration CI 1 went to George S Perry of Rathdowney. George is described as a general trader in the 1901 census with a shop at The Square, Rathdowney. George was also the registered owner of motorcycle CI 110. Vehicle registration was a relatively new requirement in 1911.

Edward VII, who was a keen motoring enthusiast, brought in the Motoring Act in 1903. This act replaced the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896. That particular act made some strides, so to speak, in motoring, raising the speed limit from 4mph in rural areas and 2mph in urban areas, to a general limit of mph. The new speed was reputedly determined in relation to the speed of a horse.

After much lobbying by the growing motoring fraternity, the 1903 act raised the speed limit to a whopping 20mph.

And if you had happened to visit Millbrook in Abbeyleix, you would have found not one, not two, but three cars in the driveway. Henry C FitzHerbert was the proud owner of CI 7; CI 40 was owned by Cecil H FitzHerbert; and CI 69 was registered to HC FitzHerbert, all one and the same person, I think.

Henry FitzHerbert was land agent to the de Vesci landlord, and, as with most land agents, I would hazard that CI 7, CI 40 or CI 69 were well known in the locality. Their progress on the rounds of Abbeyleix and district is likely to have been closely monitored and reported on among the estates tenantry. The early equivalent of ‘I seen your Solara outside…’.

The Odlum family accounted for the lion’s share of Queen’s County motor registrations at this time. Wm J Odlum, with an address in Ardmore, Bray, owned CI 28. Frank Odlum of New Park,

Maryborough, accounted for CI 53; WP Odlum (or William Perry Odlum, to give him his full title) of the same address owned CI 63. Frank and William were brothers. William, at 33 years and a milling engineer, was older than Frank by two years. Frank was also involved in the family flour milling business.

WH Odlum of Mountmellick was the registered owner of motorcycle CI 55. Whether he had a connection to the fl our milling dynasty, I know not, but there is a William H Odlum, farmer, listed in Market Street, Mountmellick in the 1911 census.

WP Odlum of Portarlington drove CI 84; RR Odlum of Maryborough owned CI 95; and WP Odlum of Huntington, Portarlington, owned CI 115. Another prominent car-owner driving CI 93 was Humphrey Bland of Blandsfort. Some years back, when I met Bob Montgomery, curator of the Royal Irish Automobile Club Archive, we had a discussion about motor reliability trials. In fact, we were arguing the toss about the date of motor reliability trials in the early 1900s. I made mention of this some months back in connection with the de Vesci Arms Hotel, which was an RIAC Hotel, and the venue for lunch on the day of the motor trials. Bob told me that Humphrey Bland was a prominent member of the RIAC and was a prime mover in the organization of the trials.

In all, there are 48 cars and 44 motorcycles registered for the Queen’s County in 1911, and I have only barely scratched the surface of this archival treasure of our motoring pioneers. My thanks to Enda McEvoy and I think I can safely say that we will be taking another drive down this particular memory lane at a future time.