Beechwood Park House

Most people in Nenagh will be familiar with the famous Irish Hanging Judge, Lord Norbury of Beechwood or John Toler to give him his proper name. Many will not have heard of the feats of one of his descendants, Leopold James Graham-Toler. His exploits during WW1 read like an excerpt from Boy’s Own Stories and are definitely worthy of a closer look.

 

Leopold was born 09/06/1888 in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight to Lt.-Colonel James Otway Graham-Toler and Emily Alexina Wardlaw-Ramsay. He was educated first at Aysgarth Preparatory School in Yorkshire and later attended Lancing School at Worthing in Hampshire until 1906. He joined the Special Military Reserve in 1911 having on 11/02/1910 previously been Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant of the 6th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment (The Diehards). He would later serve in France with the 4th battalion.  He is recorded at this time as then living at Hove, in Sussex.

 

In 1913 Leopold's father James died at Beechwood Park and Nenagh Magistrates adjourned their session as a mark of respect.

 

The following year, war is declared on 02/08/1914 and on 22/08/1914 Leopold Graham-Toler is with the 4th Middlesex and to be found with the rest of the B.E.F. at Mons. Prior to the Battle he has a brief mention in the diary of one of the “Diehards” wherein he recalls Graham-Toler is in charge of a platoon on picquet duty guarding Lock 5 on the Mons-Conde Canal. 

 

When the Germans eventually attacked, the Middlesex held their ground and fought the Germans to a standstill. They deny the canal to the Germans. Unfortunately elsewhere, Tournai had fallen so the French 5th Army on the Middlesex right was under pressure. The Germans were streaming through at Tournai so the French 5th were ordered to withdraw by French Commander-in-Chief Joffre. This now exposed the British right flank. Eventually the Middlesex were ordered as part of a tactical withdrawal to retreat towards Cambrai also, despite being in a strong defensive position. Leopold was caught up in the two week rout towards Paris & the Marne that saw hundreds of prisoners captured by the Germans. Red Cross records state Leopold was wounded in the foot on 27th of August and captured on 03/09/1914.

 

On 09/09/1914, The Scotsman newspaper records that Lieutenant L.J. Graham-Toler of the Middlesex Regiment has been captured having been previously reported as wounded.

 

Red Cross records are very useful here as they follow Leopold’s progress around Germany. He visited Bei Magdeburg, sometimes called Burg and he is recorded as being there on 05/06/1915. He also spent time in Ströhen but June 1916 see’s him in Mainz & Frieberg in July and by 31/12/1916 back to Magdeburg again. By November 1917 he has reached Holzminden and finally ending up in Bad Colberg in February of 1918. There are of course other excursions to Torgau where he was court-martialled for bribery & escaping. 

 

So why this tour of Germany in the middle of a war. Well Leopold was a persistent escaper. Firstly he was restricted to the Officer Kriegs Gefangenen Lager where unlike the ordinary soldier the officers didn’t have to do physical work. This left much time for planning and conspiring escapes. Luck and near misses played a large part in this. Leopold teamed up with others of a similar mindset. They used coffee grounds and ink to dye their Khaki uniforms. Others tailored the uniforms to make them look civilian. In this excerpt from a biography of Eric Sherbrooke Walker….

“Graham-Toler, heir to the Earl of Norbury, joined Eric in his first serious attempt at escape: a plan to walk out of the gate disguised as German officers which foundered at the last minute when the Germans abandoned the greatcoats that Eric and Graham-Toler had so painstakingly prepared and switched to capes instead.”

(Walker is an interesting tale in his own right. He was friends with the Baden-Powells who frequently sent him parcels with wire-cutters hidden in hambones, miniature compasses and other useful escape equipment, including a blow-up pillow which was later used for crossing a river. Sherbrooke-Walker would later go on to be the proprietor of the famous ’Treetops Hotel’ in Kenya.)

 

In another instance, at Mainz, the would be escapers had chosen a recreation room with Billiards and Table Tennis from which to dig a tunnel. Verdun was roughly 100 mile from there and the artillery barrage could be heard. They were close enough to the front to make a successful attempt. 

Leopold was digging a shaft and redistributing the soil under the seats when a drunken German officer entered and sat down. Leopold had to remain hidden beneath the benches until he had left. 

When the shaft had been sunk 9 foot they turned right to dig under the ramparts, Mainz being a cathedral & fortress town. However they only succeeded in breaking into a tomb and apart from discovering a skeleton found nothing around them but bedrock. They gathered their escape equipment and an attempt was made. Unfortunately this was again foiled by the unplanned and sudden call of an “Appell” and the British Officers were rounded up and moved further into Germany.

One of the prison camps Leopold was moved to was Holzminden. This was a combined camp catering both for captured soldiers and civilian internees. As with many of the camps, “lagergeld” was issued to the prisoners. This meant prisoners had no access to ‘real’ money with which they could use to bribe the guards. After all whats the use of prisoner currency when all you can buy is black bread. Fraternisation was strictly prohibited, but as with most institutions some rules were more strictly enforced than others depending on the German officer. 

The receipt of Red Cross Parcels however, especially during the later stages of the war meant the British had a viable currency for bribes. Food was in short supply for the ordinary German but white bread was being received by the prisoners in contrast to the ersatz Blackbread which was adulterated with sawdust and chalk which was issued to the German Guards. Speaking of the Red Cross, while Leopold was being sent parcels from home, his mother Emily and sister Ivy were also doing their bit and working with the Red Cross. Emily was based at Nenagh Hospital between 1915 and 1919.

 

By 1916 Leopold has been promoted to Captain. He continues to make a nuisance of himself. A request is received asking for his transfer to Switzerland in a letter from his wife. Leopold was never married!. Further correspondence is received asking for his Power of Attorney to be transferred into Paddy’s name for the running of Beechwood Estate. Paddy was a dog.! 

In the meantime Leopold was acquitted of his crimes whilst being courts-martialled at Torgau and was transferred yet again. Leopold was finally moved to Bad Colberg on 14/03/1918. 

 

On 10/11/1915, 2nd Lt Harold Medlicott and his observer Arthur Whitten Brown were on a reconnaissance flight behind German lines when they developed engine failure and were forced to land behind German lines. Brown would later find fame after the war when he and John Alcock completed the first successful non-stop Atlantic flight in 1919, landing in Clifden, Galway and winning a £10,000 Daily Mail prize.

 

Medlicott and Brown were captured at Courcelles and sent to Clausthal camp later being transferred to Bad Colberg. In Clausthal, Medlicott gained a reputation as a chief burglar by obtaining keys to most buildings and being a general thorn in the German’s side. It was rumoured that none of the Camp Commandants wanted the responsibility of having Medlicott in their “Lagers”.

On reaching Bad Colberg, Medlicott became friends with Leopold. A page from a Souvenir program of the camp, details Cricket scores for the two. The enclosed photograph was taken soon after he arrived. Leopold gives his address on the rear as Beechwood Park.

 

Medlicott was also a persistent escaper, so much so he was warned that if he escaped again he would never return alive. Sure enough he escaped from Bad Colberg with Capt. J.S. Walter but both were recaptured on 21/05/1918, about 19 miles from the camp. As with many escapes, getting out of the camp was rarely the problem, it was getting through Germany unnoticed that caused most issues. Not fitting in, not speaking the language or speaking with a strange accent, all were potential hazards. 

Both men were “shot while trying to escape”. The bodies being returned to camp were examined and found to also have had bayonet wounds. A secret British court of enquiry was held within the camp where it found that the two men had been murdered.

 

When the war ended in 1918, Leopold and his fellow prisoners were repatriated. Some elected to remain in Europe to allow those at the front to return first. Leopold is recorded as having been repatriated on 01/01/1919.

On 30/01/1920, following Army Order 193 of 1919 and in recognition of the part he played in escaping and attempting to escape, Leopold was awarded the Military Cross.

You would have expected that would be enough for now and he would retire back to Beechwood. However, Leopold wasn’t done yet. He joined Lieutenant Colonel Philip Woods and the Karelian Regiment. Leopold was now promoted to Major with the North Russian Expeditionary Force.

Woods was born in Belfast and qualified as a Textile designer from Belfast School of Art. During the Boer War he had spent two years in South Africa with Baden-Powells Constabulary as he was too young to join up with the regulars. He had also been a gun-runner for the Ulster Volunteers and was firmly Anti-Home Rule. The irony is that the ‘Irish Karelians’ as they were known, were in Finland ostensibly to support self-determination for the indigenous Karelian population who were under siege from both Finns and Russians. In reality it was Churchill's method of waging war against the Bolsheviks. Historically the Karelian province had been part of Sweden or Finland and with some parts in Russia. Sweden was no longer involved but both Finland and Russia each had designs on it. The Karelian's themselves wanted their own independence. When the White Russians attempted to take over, the British contingent were evacuated on 03/10/1919 leaving the Karelians’ to their fate. Woods went on to next support the Lithuanians who were similarly trying to achieve independence and Leopold returned home to Beechwood Park. 

 

Leopold doesn’t escape the excitement at home though. In his statement, Con Spain, Commandant of 1st Battalion North Tipperary Brigade, recounts that Captain Toler supplied the Kilruane I.R.A. with 1x .45 Webley, 1x .22 revolver, 1x double-barrelled shotgun and 1x Sam Brown belt. There is no mention as to whether these items were surrendered voluntarily. Interestingly, these 'donated' arms and equipment and others were kept in the hay-shed by members of the Kilruane I.R.A. who worked at Beechwood. It was considered to be a safe cache and unlikely to be raided by the R.I.C.

Leopold appears to fade out after this. There are a couple of mentions of trips to and from Capetown where he is recorded as being a retired Army captain and a landowner at Beechwood. He was an active member of Nenagh Show Committee and North Tipperary Coursing Club. He was popular among the Nenagh Branch of the British Legion and a regular attendee at ‘The Hut’. 

 

Ultimately, Leopold's lands at Beechwood were taken and divided by the Irish Land Commission. Part of the Land became Nenagh Golf Club, which was re-affiliated as a Club in 1929. Other mentions of Leopold see’s him in court for non-payment of rates. This is the time of the ‘Land Rich, Cash Poor’ when many of the big houses having survived the Irish War of Independence lost their roofs. One wonders what his Ancestor John Toler would have thought.

Leopold died 09/06/1938 at Annagh Lodge, Coolbaun, being cared for by ex-nurse Alice Minchin. He was 49.  His health had suffered in the War and he never really fully recovered. His funeral was held at St Mary’s in Church Road, Nenagh and his comrades from the Ex-Servicemens Club formed a Guard of Honour. He was buried in the family plot at Durrow Abbey in Offaly. Leopold is commemorated in Nenagh on the 1914-18 plaque in St Mary’s Church of Ireland on Church Road.