Sir Frederick Conway Dwyer
As part of the current cataloguing of the Dun's Library, a number of bound manuscript items, which really form part of the archive, have been found on the library shelves. Amongst these bound volumes is a small leather bound volume with gold edges, containing newspaper cuttings relating to the death, funeral and Will of Sir Conway Dwyer.
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| Sir Frederick Conway Dwyer - BMS/24 |
Conway Dwyer was born in 1860 in Dublin; he was educated at Trinity College and worked as a surgeon at several of the leading hospitals in Dublin. He was actively involved with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, serving on their council for many years, and acting as Professor of Surgery and President of the College. Conway Dwyer died on 10 October 1935 at the Pembroke Nursing Home in Dublin.
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| Page from BMS/24 |
Given Dwyer's obvious association with the College of Surgeons, it is perhaps surprising that the College of Physicians holds this item, but events following his death led to a posthumous connection with the College of Physicians. As the Irish Independent and Irish Times both reported, Conway Dwyer left the majority of his fortune (over £36,000, the equivalent of over £1.5 million in today's money) to his friend Mrs Mary Tyrell. She is described in the articles as the daughter of his great friend Thomas O'Kearney White and also the owner of the nursing home in which Conway Dwyer died. His Will seems to have caused a bit of a stir, and there was a certain amount of speculation about Mrs Tyrell. Within the volume of cuttings there is a printed apology from one newspaper;
'We are informed that Mrs Tyrrell is not and never was a nurse and that she did not nurse Sir Frederick either during his last illness or at any time … We apologise to Mrs Tyrrell for the inaccuracies which occurred in the reports of our Dublin correspondent'
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| Napoleon - VM/1/2/N/1 |
Amongst the possessions that passed to Mary Tyrell was Conway Dwyer's collection of Napoleonic artefacts. This collection, which includes Napoleon's toothbrush and snuff box, had been put together by another Irish Surgeon Barry Edward O'Meara (1789-1836). O'Meara acted as Napoleon's doctor while he was on St. Helena, and also published an account of his experience Napoleon in Exile. A Voice from St. Helena (1822). Mrs Tyrell presented this collection to the College of Physicians following Dwyer's death. Why she decided to give them to the College of Physicians rather than the College of Surgeons is unclear. The tradition within the College of Physicians is that during Dwyer's life the College of Surgeons had disapproved of his friendship with Mrs Tyrell and she had not been invited to attend College of Surgeons' events. Meaning that after his death she was not very well disposed towards them! Whatever the reason Conway Dwyer's Napoleonic collection was presented to the College of Physicians, where it remains one of our more unusual collections, and it seems likely that the volume of newspaper cuttings dates from the same time.