Group accompanied by over 50 pages of copied correspondence and documents from Captain Andrews's WW1 Officer's Papers file, the most significant of which is a signed Statement Of Service by Captain Andrews dated 9/9/1918 replying to and rebutting accusations made against him by another officer regarding his office work, being a bad disciplinarian, and a bad horseman. That rebuttal contains a detailed report of Andrews's services in Ireland during the 1916 Rising and early stages of the Irish war of independence, the relevant sections reading as follows:
"Appointed B.M.G.O. (Brigade Machine Gun Officer) 3rd Reserve Cavalry Brigade April 3rd 1916. M.G.O. to Colonel (now General) B.P. Portal's column during Irish rebellion. Present at attack on City Hall from the Castle. Then sent i/c of troops to seize Shelbourne Hotel and clear situation on St Stephen's Green. The Countess Markievicz and over 100 rebels surrendered to me from the College of Surgeons on the Saturday after the outbreak (here I was slightly wounded). With the same column as M.G.O. in the west of Ireland after Dublin city."
Group also accompanied by biographical details, extracts 1881, 1891, 1911 census returns, 4 pages Boer War period copied service papers and 2 pages copied discharge papers (17th Lancers) and extract QSA Medal roll confirming Andrews also entitled Queen's South Africa Medal with 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal and WW1 medal roll confirming British War and Victory Medals.
In addition to his Statement Of Service Captain Andrews's Officers Papers file includes over 40 pages of documents and correspondence, including a number of references from officers and men that he served with in the 17th Lancers, correspondence dated August 1915 re. an application to transfer from the 17th Lancers to the Royal Navy as a Paymaster, 7 pages of correspondence, February - March 1918 re. Andrews being invalided from France and admitted to the Third, London, Hospital, 4 pages of correspondence, July 1918, re. Andrews being hospitalised after a fall from a horse, and 15 pages of correspondence re. refusal to grant Andrews the rank of Major on retirement in January 1919
George Oscar Andrews (1872-1939) was born in 1872 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Lancashire, the son of Peter and Mary Andrews. Andrews is recorded in the 1881 census as a 9 year old schoolboy resident in Clapham, London, with his father, mother, two sisters, a brother and a cousin, in the 1891 census as a 19 year old clerk, employed by the local County Council, boarding with the Rose family in Islington, London, . Andrews enlisted into the 17th Lancers at Hounslow on 27/9/1891 using the assumed name George Oscar Emmerson. Andrews was promoted Lance Corporal, 6/11/1894 and Corporal, 9/10/1895, but was tried by regimental court martial and reduced to Private on 15/2/1897, and transferred to the Army Reserve with the rank of Private on 9/3/1897. Andrews was recalled to army service following the outbreak of the Boer War on 28/12/1899, rejoining the 17th Lancers, that regiment recorded as being stationed at Ballincollig, County Cork, Ireland, in the December 1900 Army List, and was discharged medically unfit for further service on 26/6/1901. In addition to service at home, Andrews saw service in South Africa for 270 days, 15/2/1900 to 11/11/1900 (awarded Queen's South Africa Medal with 3 clasp, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal). Andrews is recorded in the 1911 census as a 39 year old advertisement manager living in Wandsworth, London, with his 45 year old wife Florence, a niece and a servant, and was still resident in Wandsworth the the First World War broke out (1915 London Directory gives his address as 40 Ellerton Road, Wandsworth. Following the outbreak of WW1 Andrews rejoined his old regiment and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 17th Lancers, 5/9/1914, promoted Lieutenant, 8th Reserve Regiment, 27/2/1915 and Captain, Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry) 3/6/1916. Andrews relinquished his commission on 4/7/1919 and was granted the honorary rank of Captain. Captain Andrews then returned to London where he was employed in the advertising department of The Times, the voter list of 1918 recording him as a Captain in the 17th Lancers resident at 17 Elmfield Mansions, Wandsworth. Captain Andrews died in London on 16/3/1939.
During the 1920s Andrews was appointed liquidator of two companies; The Austin Tangent Steel Company in October 1926 and the New Austin Tangent Wheels Company in October 1928.
Captain Andrews was a Freemason, a member of the St Bride Lodge of the Grand Lodge of England and is recorded in the register as having been a member of that lodge from 1909.
During the 1916 Easter Rising Colonel Portal commanded the mobile column of the 3rd Reserve Cavalry Brigade from the Curragh, and was in charge of an outpost line that ran from Kingsbridge Station past Dublin Castle to Trinity College, which effectively cut the rebel force in two, on the north and south sides of the river Liffey. The following account of the surrender of the College of Surgeons garrison, based on the accounts by Captain Henry de Courcy Wheeler, of the 8th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps, and James O'Shea, a member of the Irish Citizen Army garrison in the College of Surgeons, is taken from Neil Richardson's "According to their Lights, Stories of Irishmen in the British Army, Easter 1916" (The Collins Press, Cork, 2015).
"Captain Wheeler, who gave evidence at the courts martial of Mallin and Markiewicz (as well as four others) later recorded that
I was on duty on 30th April outside the College of Surgeons. A body of prisoners surrendered to me between 12.30pm and 1pm. The prisoner (Mallin) and the Countess of Markievicz came out of a side door of the College. The prisoner was carrying a white flag and as unarmed but the Countess was armed. The prisoner came forward and saluted and said he wished to surrender and this is the Countess Markievicz. He surrendered and stated he was the Commandant of the garrison. I took over the garrison which consisted of prisoner, Countess Markievicz, 109 men and 10 women. I found them in the College and they laid down their arms under my direction.
A member of the Irish Citizen Army garrison, James O'Shea, also recorded the event
Major Wheeler came in accompanied by another officer. We were standing at ease. Commandant Mallin called us smartly to attention, gave us 'arms down, three paces backward, march', turned about, drew his sword and presented it, haft first, to Major Wheeler. Major Wheeler asked Mallin were all his men here. When Mallin replied that they were all here, Major Wheeler was surprised as he thought there would be about two hundred. He then addressed us and told us to get blankets as we might need them. We were then formed in tow's and marched out of the college."
