Finding Irish links and links with CS Lewis in a plaque in the cloisters in Durham Cathedral

The monument to Archdeacon George Hans Hamilton in the cloisters in Durham Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

As I was walking through the cloisters in Durham Cathedral during my recent visit, I noticed a plaque commemorating George Hans Hamilton (1823-1903), who was Archdeacon of Lindisfarne (1865-1882), Archdeacon of Northumberland (1882-1905), and a Canon of Durham Cathedral.

The plaque caught my attention because his name indicated and the fading coat-of-arms on the memorial indicated, to me at least, not only that Archdeacon Hamilton was Irish but that he was part of the Hamilton family who are closely identified with both Balbriggan and Skerries in north Co Dublin.

I have been familiar with both towns since my schooldays, until recently I regularly went for walks on the beach in Skerries, and I often did Sunday duty in Holmpatrick Church, Skerries, and Saint George’s Church, Balbriggan.

There is a large monument to one branch of the Hamilton family in the centre of Skerries, and some memorial tablets from an older church that have survived in the new church when it was being built in the 1860s.

One curious monument to the memory of James Hamilton of Sheepshill and Holmpatrick reads in part: ‘A gentleman who during a long and most active life displayed that zealous energy and ingenious integrity that forms a useful and virtuous man … He died the 20th of October 1800, in the 73rd year of his age … Of the uncommonly numerous offspring of thirty six children he was survived by eight sons and eight daughters.’

James Hamilton’s descendants include Richard Branson. However, with 36 children born over 200 years ago, Hamilton must be the ancestor of thousands upon thousands of people today. But … 36 children? A most active life that displayed zealous energy indeed! Useful and virtuous? What about his poor wife or wives?

Archdeacon Hamilton, on the other hand, is directly related to the Balrothery and Balbriggan branch of the Hamilton family, and my search for his family background led to the discovery that he was also related to interesting Irish literary figures too.

The future archdeacon was born on 21 January 1823, the third son of Henry Hamilton (1780-1854) of Tullylish, Co Down, and a grandson of Hugh Hamilton (1729-1805), Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh (1795-1799) and then Bishop of Ossory (1799-1805).

Bishop Hugh Hamilton was born in Balrothery, near Balbriggan, Co Dublin, in 1725. He was an older brother of Judge George Hamilton (1732-1793) of Hampton, Balrothery, who was MP for Belfast and a Baron of the Exchequer. Judge Hamilton is remembered mainly for developing the town of Balbriggan. As part of the development of Balbriggan, he sold the Lower Mill to the business of Comerford and O’Brien in Balbriggan in the early 1780s. His son, the Revd George Hamilton built Saint George’s Church, Balbriggan, in 1813.

The most elaborate memorial in Saint George’s Church recalls George Alexander Hamilton, who died on 17 September 1871. His wife Amelia Fancourt Hamilton is remembered on a similar memorial that says: ‘Her clothing and coal clubs were for many years a great benefit to the poor of this neighbourhood.’ It also mentions that she set up an infant school in 1836 at Hampton Gates.

The elaborate memorial to George Alexander Hamilton, who died in 1871 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Hamiltons were a clerical family with seemingly innumerable priests in the Church of Ireland. Bishop Hamilton was a Professor of Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin, Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Dublin, and Dean of Armagh before he became a bishop. Three of his sons were priests: Hans Hamilton of Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny, who fled Co Kilkenny during the ‘Tithe War’ in the 1830s; George Hamilton (1783-1830), of Killemogh, Co Laois, a Biblical scholar; and the Revd Hugh Hamilton (1790-1865) of Innishmacsaint, Co Fermanagh.

Another son of Bishop Hamilton, Henry Hamilton (1780-1854), grew up in Dublin, but lived much of his life in Tullylish, Co Down. As well as the archdeacon who is commemorated in Durham Cathedral, Henry Hamilton was the father of two other priests: the Revd Hugh Hamilton (1811-1884) of Dublin, and Canon William Alfred Hamilton (1824-1897), Rector of Taney, Dundrum, Co Dublin. His daughter Sarah was a doctor’s wife who lived in the family home, Hampton Hall, Balbriggan; her son, the Revd Rowland Scriven (1859-1944), was a curate in Balbriggan from 1898 until 1920, when he moved to England.

The Hamilton family was intermarried with many of the great literary figures in Ireland, and both John Millington Synge and CS Lewis are direct descendants of Bishop Hamilton.

Archdeacon George Hans Hamilton was a first cousin of the Revd Thomas Robert Hamilton, the first Rector of Saint Mark’s, Dundela, in Belfast, and the grandfather of CS Lewis.

In the cloisters in Durham Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The future archdeacon, George Hans Hamilton, was born on 21 January 1823, He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity College, Dublin and was ordained in 1847.

After a time as a curate in Sunderland he became chaplain of Durham Prison and then Vicar of Berwick. He was chaplain to the High Sheriff of Durham in 1884.

Hamilton first married Arabella Sarah (Bella) Best on 9 May 1848. Her father John Best (1791-1825) was an accountant with the East India Company in Bombay; her mother Arabella née Robinson (1795-1855) was from Sunderland. Best seems to have spent much of his time travelling between Bombay and Sunderland. When he died in Bombay at the age of 33, he left a pregnant widow in India with four other children under the age of 10.

Bella Hamilton died in January 1868. She was the mother of two sons and a daughter: Hans Alfred Hamilton (born 1849), who seems to have been the ‘black sheep’ of the family; and Henry (Harry) Best Hans Hamilton (1850-1935); and Eliza Arabella Sarah (1858-1919), known as Ella.

Soon after Bella’s death, Hamilton married his second wife Lady Louisa Frances Clements (1843-1939) in 1869. She was a sister of Robert Bermingham Clements (1847-1892), 4th Earl of Leitrim. The couple were the parents of another daughter and three more sons: George Francis Clements Hamilton (1870-1900); Robert Charles Clements Hamilton (1871-1901), a refrigeration engineer, who was killed in an explosion on the first refrigerated ship bringing bananas to Britain from the West Indies; Sir Collingwood George Clements Hamilton (1877-1947), an electrical engineer and Conservative politician; and Louisa Lindisfarne Clements (Hamilton) Maitland (1878-1952).

Hamilton was a great advocate of prison reform. His character was drawn upon by Charles Reade in It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1856). He was Archdeacon of Lindisfarne (1865-1882), Archdeacon of Northumberland (1882-1905), and a canon of Durham Cathedral. He died on 23 September 1905 – he was 80 and still in office; his widow, Lady Louisa Hamilton, died on 31 August 1939.

As for Archdeacon Hamilton’s first cousin, the Revd Thomas Hamilton, he baptised his grandson, Clive Staples Lewis, in Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela, on 29 January 1899.

A portrait in Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela, of the Revd Thomas Hamilton, grandfather of CS Lewis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A window in Finaghy helps to continue the search for Private Daniel Commerford

The Daniel Commerford window in Saint Polycarp’s Church, Finaghy, Belfast

Patrick Comerford

It is five years since I started searching for Private Daniel Commerford of Dundela Parish in Belfast.

On 28 January 2012, I wrote that my friend and colleague, Dr Susan Hood of the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin, is trying to find any descendants of Oxford-born Daniel Commerford who was a parishioner of Saint Mark’s, Dundela, in east Belfast during World War I, and who served on the Western Front.

She had recently unearthed a letter from Daniel Commerford from the Western Front to his rector in East Belfast. And the search for Daniel Commerford proved to be tantalising for anyone interested in Church history, military history, family history and the history of English literature.

Private Daniel Commerford’s letter from the trenches in France to his Rector at home in Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

In 1918, this Daniel Commerford wrote from the Western Front to the Rector of Dundela, the Revd Arthur Barton, thanking him and the parish for a Christmas parcel they had sent to him in France.

Daniel Commerford’s letter is one among a collection of letters sent by ten soldiers who were parishioners in Dundela that came to light and has been catalogued in the RCB Library. ‘While other letters that were written from the Front are found in other repositories and in private custody, the survival of a collection in a parish context is rare,’ Dr Hood said at the time.

The parish of Dundela was formed in 1876, the first ‘modern’ parish to be created in the growing suburbs of rapidly expanding east Belfast in the second half of the 19th century. The church was designed by the English Tractarian architect, William Butterfield, and was consecrated on 22 August 1878. The church’s distinctive sandstone bell-tower could once be seen all over Belfast and whilst continues to be a conspicuous landmark.

In the early 20th century, the social diversity of Dundela was enriched by numerous working class families linked with Belfast’s factories, mills and shipyards, and many of them lived in the village of Strandtown, nearer to Knockbreda parish from which the parish of Dundela had been carved.

By 1914, on the eve of the World War I, Dundela parish about 450 families, many of them living in Strandtown. The Revd Arthur Barton was appointed to Dundela just four months before the outbreak of World War I. During the war, he cut a dashing figure In Dundela as he cycled around the parish, visiting and supporting families missing their loved ones and trying to encourage a wider spirit of community among those left behind.

In March 1918, the parish magazine recorded that ‘several letters have been received from parishioners in France, thanking the congregation for the New Year presents and saying how useful they were in the winter weather.’

The letters provide poignant descriptions of the realities of World War I and its impact on the lives of families in one Belfast parish. All ten letters were written between the end of January and late February 1918, and probably relate to parcels sent before Christmas.

The Revd Arthur Barton of Saint Mark’s, Dundela … later became Bishop of Kilmore and Archbishop of Dublin

The Rector of Dundela, the Revd Arthur Barton (1881-1962) had been a curate in Saint George’s, Hardwick Place, and Howth, Co Dublin, before moving to Belfast in 1912 as head of the TCD Mission (1912-1914), working in the working class areas of Crumlin and the Shankill. He was Rector of Dundela from 1914 to 1925, and later served as Rector of Bangor (1925-1930), when he was also Archdeacon of Down, and then became Bishop of Kilmore (1930-1939) and Archbishop of Dublin (1939-1956).

The file of his personal papers from his time as rector reveals many of his activities, including a parcel scheme of comforts sent to soldiers from the parish fighting at the Front in late 1917. The details of this scheme are revealed in the letters of thanks sent back to the rector and parishioners from ten of those soldiers. Each letter reveals that the men deeply appreciated their comfort parcels and the thoughts of people at home. Barton felt the letters important enough to keep together in an envelope marked simply ‘Soldiers’ Presents.’

Private Daniel Commerford’s signature on his letter from France to the Revd Arthur Barton in Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Daniel Commerford was older than the other nine letter writers. Taken together, the letters provide poignant descriptions of the realities of World War I and its impact on the lives of families in one Belfast parish. All ten letters were written between the end of January and late February 1918, and probably relate to parcels sent before Christmas.

CS Lewis … also a parishioner of Saint Mark’s Church

Dundela is also of interest as the home parish of CS Lewis (1898-1963), best remembered today for the Screwtape Letters. CS Lewis had been baptised in Saint Mark’s in 1899 by his maternal grandfather, the Revd Thomas Hamilton, then rector of the parish; his father, Albert Lewis, a solicitor, was originally from Cork.

By 1911, when Daniel Commerford was living in Dundela, Lewis had been sent to school in England, and was a pupil at Barton’s old school in Watford, Wynyard School, from 1908. He returned to Dundela after Barton became Rector of Saint Mark’s in 1914, and refers affectionately to Barton in his autobiography.

In 1917, Lewis left University College Oxford to volunteer in the British army and was commissioned in the Somerset Light Infantry. He arrived at the front line in the Somme Valley in France on his 19th birthday, and experienced trench warfare.

On 15 April 1918, two months after Daniel Commerford wrote to Barton, Lewis was wounded and two of his colleagues were killed by a British shell falling short of its target. On his recovery in October, he was sent to Andover. He was discharged in December 1918, and soon returned to Oxford, receiving a first in Greats in 1922 and a first in English in 1923.

I wondered, when I was writing five years ago, whether Daniel Commerford and CS Lewis had ever known one another?

Did they ever share their reminiscences of Arthur Barton?

Daniel was born in Oxford, so I wondered whether they had ever talked about their very divergent experiences of Oxford?

Did they ever meet in France?

Did Daniel Commerford’s children have any living descendants?

The names of 31 men from the parish who died during World War I are recorded on the 1914-1918 memorial in Saint Mark’s, but none of the letter writers is among them. Further research by Dr Hood at the Somme Heritage Centre in Newtownards, Co Down, shows that none of the ten Dundela soldiers was killed in the war.

‘We must conclude that all the letter writers made it safely back from the Front to reconstruct their lives. It may yet be possible to trace their story thereafter using other archival sources – a story to be continued.’

Dr Hood continued to hope she would find living relatives of Daniel Commerford, adding: ‘I would be very grateful, as we would like to share with them the content of the letter.’

My blog posting was soon published as a four-page feature in the March 2012 edition of The Lion, the parish magazine of Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela.

There had been speculation that Daniel Commerford, like other parishioners in Dundela, had survived World War I and had returned to live in Belfast. But I failed to find him in Dundela. There were no responses to my blog posting or the parish magazine feature, and my search seemed to draw no further information.

For the past five years, all the questions I posed had remained unanswered.

Then recently, while I was researching other stained-glass windows, I came across a photograph on Facebook and another from the Representative Church Body of a window in Saint Polycarp’s Church, Finaghy, on the Upper Lisburn Road in Belfast, erected by the parishioners in 1949 in memory of Daniel Commerford.

The window in Saint Polycarp’s now provided clues that allowed me to trace Daniel’s post-war life, and to find his descendants in Belfast, England and Canada.

Saint Polycarp’s Church was consecrated 85 years ago in 1932, and this window was part of the whole iconographic scheme proposed that year by the Shrigley & Hunt studio in Lancaster.

However, the Commerford window was not put in place in the south aisle nave of Saint Polycarp’s Church until 1949, when it was erected by the parishioners in memory of Daniel Commerford, who had died two years earlier on 27 October 1947, almost 70 years ago, at the age of 68.

In all, the Commerford window is made up of three lancet windows, measuring 820 mm x 340 mm, 920 mm x 510 mm, and 820 mm x 240 mm, and six tracery-lights.

The three scenes in the window are of: Saint Ann teaching the Blessed Virgin Mary (left), the Annunciation (centre) and the Visitation (right). The inscription in the lower part of the window reads:

To the glory of God and in affectionate remembrance of Daniel Commerford who loved and served this parish church. This window is placed here by the parishioners, 1949.

The window in Saint Polycarp’s that Daniel Commerford led me to some other sources, and confirmed indeed that Daniel Commerford had survived World War I and had returned to live in Belfast.

The parish registers in Dundela record that before World War I, Daniel Commerford was living in New Street and a coachman, while a search of the 1911 Census online found only one possible D. Commerford living in Belfast. That Daniel Commerford was living in House No 37, Ballymacanallen (Tullylish), Co Down.

The census returns show Daniel Commerford was a coachman. He was born in Oxford and was aged 31 years in 1911, making him 38 by 1918. He was married to Edith (then aged 29, and born in Co Down), and in 1911 they had three children, from the ages of six down to one: Arthur (6), Hubert (4), and Margaret (1), all members of the Church of Ireland.

Now, a number of sources and some recent searches, have shown that when Daniel returned to Belfast he moved to Finaghy, and he and Edith had more children. Indeed, his last surviving child, Evelyn Mary Commerford (1921-2016), was still living when I set out on this search, and died in Belfast within the past year, on 14 April 2016. Her funeral service was held in Saint Hilda’s Church of Ireland parish church in Dunmurry.

With these sources and searches, I have started to draft a family tree for Daniel, which begins to look like this:

Daniel Commerford, constable, Royal Irish Constabulary, was the father of:

Daniel J Commerford (1879-1947), was born in Oxford 2 June 1879. A coachman, he was living at 47 South Richmond Street, Dublin, in 1903, at Thornhill, Shankill, Bray, in 1904, at Ballymacanallen, Tullylish, Down, aged 31 in 1911, and at Bannvale, Gilford, Co Down, when he signed the Ulster Covenant at West Gilford Orange Hall in 1912, and in 1913.

On 19 September 1903, he married Edith Violet Laverty (1881-1964), a daughter of William Laverty (1857-1934) of Banbridge, and his wife Sarah (née Rankin) Laverty (ca 1848-1940). At the time of her wedding, Edith was living at Straffan House, Co Kildare, then the home of the Barton family. The wedding was solemnised in the Registrar’s Office in Dublin (witnesses: Matthew Hamilton, Mary Anne O’Brien).

Daniel J Commerford last lived at 3 Lille Park, Finaghy, and died at the age of 68 on 27 October 1947. He was buried two days later in Belfast City Cemetery. Edith, who was born 11 October 1881, died 7 June 1964, in Finaghy, Co Antrim, and she is buried in Belfast city cemetery.

Daniel and Edith were the parents of eight children:

1, Arthur Ernest Commerford (1904-1998), born 30 September 1904 in Shankill, Co Dublin, near Bray, Co Wicklow. Was he named after the Revd Arthur Barton of Dundela? And why were his parents living in Bray at this time? He was aged 6 living with his parents in 1911. He died on 20 February 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He married Irene McBride (born 4 August 1912, died 9 July 1985, in Surrey, British Columbia, aged 72), daughter of Richard McBride and Mary Josephine (née Appleby). Arthur and Irene Comerford had four children, including a daughter and two sons:

●1a, June Commerford, died in Belfast 1 January 1937.
●2a, Brian Commerford.
●3a, Richard Commerford.

2, Hubert Commerford (1906-1992), born 10 December 1906, aged 6 in 1911, died February 1992 in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, aged 85, buried in Redditch, Worcestershire. He married (1) Edith Taylor (ca 1909-1966), born ca 1909, died in June 1966, and they had three children, including two daughters:

●1a, Lucinda Evelyn (Lynn) Commerford (ca 1941-1950), born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, ca 1941, and died in Birmingham in 1950.
●2a, …, a daughter who married … Wood.

Hubert Commerford married (2) Martha … (1907-1993), born 1 February 1907, died June 1993, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and buried in King’s Lynn.

3, Margaretta (1909-1970); born 19 April 1909, died 19 July 1970. She married William Ferguson (1909-1988), of Hillhall, Lisburn, and they were the parents of one son and three daughters, James (Jim) Ferguson, Valerie Scott, Margaret Ferguson and Maureen Ferguson.

4, Frances Sarah, born 14 August 1911, in Gilford, Co Down. She married Walter Wright (1921-2003). He was born in Liverpool on 18 February 1921, and died in Belfast on 28 November 2003. They were the parents of Pauline Patricia Wright (1942-1967), who was born 26 September 1942, and died in a car crash in Donegal on 26 March 1967. After the death of Frances Sarah (Commerford) Wright, Walter Wright remarried.

5, Violet Edith (1913-1992). She was born on 29 July 1913, in Gilford, Co Down. She married Hugh Twyford (1912-2003), an electrical engineer. She died on 27 March 1992 in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim. Hugh Twyford was born on 16 November 1912 in Cuper Street, Belfast, and died on 5 November 2003 in Glengormley, Co Antrim. They were the parents of two children, including a daughter: Edith, who married (1) Eamon Patrick Stewart, and (2) Robert Rana Partap Raj (Kukar) (1928-2013); he was born in Kahrorpuka, India, now Multan, Pakistan, on 11 December 1928 and died in Belfast on 22 January 2013.

6, Daniel John (Jack) Commerford (1916-1918), born 9 November 1916 and died on 29 April 1918 in Strandtown, Belfast.

7, Evelyn Mary Commerford (1921-2016), born 26 July 1921 in Belfast, and died on 14 April 2016 in Belfast. Her funeral Service was held on 19 April 2016 in Saint Hilda’s Church of Ireland church, Dunmurry, and afterwards at Roselawn Crematorium.

8, An unnamed stillborn daughter, born 11 February 1923.

The search for Daniel Commerford’s descendants continues. But now the search may also begin for his ancestors, and the search for how they got to Oxford from Ireland.

The Daniel Commerford window in Saint Polycarp’s Church, Finaghy, in Belfast (Photograph: Representative Church Body Library)

A personalised tour of the church and rectory that inspired CS Lewis and Aslan the Lion

Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela … CS Lewis was baptised there on 29 January 1899 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

After this week’s conversations between the Church of Ireland and the Moravian Church concluded in Gracehill on Friday afternoon [31 January], Bishop John McDowell of Clogher celebrated the Eucharist according to the Book of Common Prayer (2004) in Gracehill Moravian Church.

Later that afternoon, I was in East Belfast for a meeting of the boards of the Anglican Mission agency Us (formerly USPG) in Saint Mark’s, Dundela, where Bishop McDowell was Rector before his election as a bishop.

I arrived in Dundela in time to enjoy the hospitality of the Revd Lynne Gibson, the curate of Saint Mark’s, who offered warm hospitality in the form of “Shipyard Strength” coffee – so appropriate for East Belfast – and my own personal guided tour of Saint Mark’s Church, the home parish of CS Lewis in his childhood.

Inside Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The tours and visitors have dwindled since the events last year to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of of CS Lewis, who died on 22 November 1963. Many parts of the church are now covered in cladding and scaffolding as major restorations are carried on. But the stillness and quiet of a late Friday afternoon provided an opportunity for a closer look at this church which is a gem not only because of its literary associations but as one of the great churches by William Butterfield (1814-1900).

For much of his life, Lewis did not like ritual and was not interested in churchmanship. While he attended the chapel in Magdalen College, Oxford, daily, he never attended Choral Evensong there and went to the early Sunday morning service in his local parish church. However, the literary historian Barry Spurr believes Lewis’s later friendship with TS Eliot influenced and reflected Lewis’s journey towards Catholic faith and practice within Anglicanism late in life: “Their friendliness seemed to exemplify Eliot’s theory in ‘Little Gidding’ about the resolution, under grace, of old antipathies.”

However, Saint Mark’s—like All Saints’, Margaret Street, London, and the Chapel of Keble College, Oxford – was designed by Butterfield as a church in the Tractarian tradition. Butterfield also designed the chapel of Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, but Saint Mark’s is his only parish church in Ireland. The church building was consecrated on 22 August 1878, however only the nave and the tower were complete at that time. The work was completed to Butterfield’s design and consecrated on 4 July 1891.

Late last year, I had written a special feature for the Christmas edition of the US magazine Koinonia on CS Lewis. Now I had an opportunity for a private, first-hand glimpse of the early childhood influences and experiences that shaped the imagination of this Belfast-born writer.

CS Lewis (1893-1963) is known worldwide for great works that include Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, The Four Loves and Surprised by Joy.

A portrait in Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela, of the first rector, the Revd Thomas Hamilton, grandfather of CS Lewis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Clive Staples Lewis, known to his friends as Jack, was born in Belfast on 29 November 1898, the son of Albert James Lewis (1863-1929), a solicitor from Co Cork, and Flora Augusta (Hamilton) Lewis. He was baptised two months later, on 29 January 1899, in Saint Mark’s Church by his maternal grandfather, the Revd Thomas Hamilton, who was the first Rector of Dundela.

Saint Mark’s Church was designed by William Butterfield, an internationally-known architect of the Tractarian Movement; his work includes All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, which has the tallest church spire in London, and Keble College. Oxford. The foundation stone was laid in 1876, and the church was consecrated in 1878.

The Communion vessels presented to Saint Mark’s by Arthur Lewis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Arthur Lewis was a Churchwarden and the first Sunday School superintendent in Saint Mark’s, and presented the silver Holy Communion vessels still used in the parish. Flora Lewis’s family, the Hamiltons, were a well-known clerical family, with successive generations of priests back to the 1720s.

In 1929, at the age of 32, through the influence of JRR Tolkien and other friends, Lewis returned to the Anglicanism of his birth. In his rooms in Magdalen College, Oxford, he had been struggling with questions about faith, and he returned to Christianity in 1929. In Surprised by Joy, he writes:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

For the rest of his life his faith exercised a lasting influence on his work.

The stained glass windows in Saint Mark’s commemorating the parents of CS Lewis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Albert Lewis died in 1929, and three years later in 1932 his sons, CS Lewis and Warren Lewis, presented a stained glass window to the church in Dundela in memory of their parents. The writer also presented the parish with a portrait of his grandfather, the first rector of the parish.

He returned regularly to the Belfast of his childhood until he died on 22 November 1963, a week before his 65th birthday. He is commemorated in the calendars of the Church of England, the Episcopal Church and other Anglican churches, but not in the calendar of the Church of his birth and baptism, the Church of Ireland.

For many of us, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia are so much part of the world of children that as adults we readily forget that CS Lewis was an important theological figure in the 20th century. Among theologians, Lewis is probably better known for his apologetic works, including Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain and Miracles and The Four Loves.

The Lion on the brass door-handle ... may have inspired a small boys lasting images of the Lion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

After showing me around Saint Mark’s Church, Lynne stopped at the former rectory, which had been the home of the Revd Thomas Hamilton, grandfather of CS Lewis, and pointed to embossed, brass lion on the door-handle. It is just high enough to meet the eyes of a small boy, and this, she said, was the lion’s image that inspired Aslan, the Lion of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Lion is the only character to appear in all seven books of the series, but a winged lion is also a traditional symbol of Saint Mark the Evangelist.

Sir John Betjeman described Saint Mark’s as “Butterfield at his best.” The church displays many characteristics of Butterfield's work including: the high ceilings, arches, pillars, mosaic tiling and contrasting coloured stonework.

Stephen Dykes Bower, a consultant architect to Westminster Abbey, was commissioned to supervise restoration work in 1976, and observed at the time: “It is an outstanding example of Butterfield’s work ... and a fine specimen Butterfield attempting to re-create the Gothic grandeur of a medieval cathedral.”

The chevrons on the tiles lead from the font to the altar, pointing out the link between Baptism and the Eucharist.

The mellowed lighting in the choir stalls ... two days before Candlemas (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The mellowed lighting in the choir stalls reminded me that tomorrow [Sunday, 2 February 2014] is the Feast of the Presentation, Candlemas.

We later returned to the parish hall, the Heyn Memorial Hall at the corner of Sydenham Avenue and the Holywood Road, for the Us (USPG) meetings. The hall, built in 1928-1929, was designed by RH Gibson and Henry Seaver.

Paul Larmour in his illustrated architectural guide to Belfast, describes it as “one of the finest parish halls in the country.” It is built in Tudor style with red brick walls, green Norwegian slates, wood-panelled rooms, and timber-mullioned windows.

Upstairs, the youth room is known as the wardrobe and has a mural of Narnia recalling the associations of Saint Mark’s Parish with CS Lewis.

I returned to Dublin late on Friday night with a precious bag of that “shipyard-strength” coffee from East Belfast.

CS Lewis (1893-1963) … a jubilee feature in the Christmas edition of Koinonia celebrates the Christian apologist and Anglican literary giant of the 20th century, who died 50 years ago

Searching for Private Daniel Commerford of Dundela

Private Daniel Commerford's letter from the trenches in France to his Rector at home in Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

My friend and colleague, Dr Susan Hood of the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin, is trying to find any descendants of a Daniel Commerford who was a parishioner of Saint Mark’s, Dundela, in east Belfast during World War I, and who served on the Western Front.

She recently unearthed a letter from Daniel Commerford from the Western Front to his rector in East Belfast. And the search for Daniel Commerford is tantalising for anyone interested in Church history, military history, family history and the history of English literature.

In 1918, this Daniel Commerford wrote from the Western Front to the Rector of Dundela, the Revd Arthur Barton, thanking him and the parish for a Christmas parcel they had sent to him in France. [1]

Saint Mark’s, Dundela … the parish church of Daniel Commerford and CS Lewis

The letter from France, dated 2 February 1918, does not give Daniel Commerford’s regiment. But it provides telling evidence of Arthur Barton’s pastoral care to the families left at home by officers serving at the front. In that letter, Private Commerford, who signs himself “one of your parishioners,” refers to Barton’s “visit to my house,” and expresses his regret that he missed seeing his rector before leaving for the front.

Commerford explains that he had to leave “a day earlier than I thought I would have too [sic],” and so did not get to say goodbye.

The letter reads:

2/2/18

France

Rev Sir,

Just a few words to thank you and the Parishioners of St Mark’s for your comforts.

Parcel which I received quite safe on 30th Jan. It is very good of you indeed to think of us all out here and we so deeply appreciate it. I was so very sorry to have missed seen you on your visit to my home as I left a day earlier than I thought I would have too, again thanking you. I remain,

Rev Sir,

One of your parishioners,

Pte D. Commerford

Private Daniel Commerford’s signature on his letter from France to the Revd Arthur Barton in Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The parish registers in Dundela record that Daniel Commerford was living in New Street and a coachman, while a search of the 1911 Census online found only one possible D. Commerford living in Belfast. That Daniel Commerford was living in House No 37, Ballymacanallen (Tullylish), Co Down.

The census indicates this Daniel Commerford was a coachman. He was born in Oxford and was aged 31 years in 1911, making him 38 by 1918. He was married to Edith (then aged 29, and born in Co Down), and in 1911 they had three children, from the ages of six down to one: Arthur (6), Habert [? recteHerbert] (4), and Margaret (1), all members of the Church of Ireland.

The Revd Arthur Barton of Saint Mark’s, Dundela … later became Bishop of Kilmore and Archbishop of Dublin

Daniel Commerford’s letter is one among a collection of letters sent by ten soldiers who were parishioners in Dundela that came to light and has been catalogued in the Representative Church Body Library, Dublin, the principal repository for the Church of Ireland’s written heritage. “While other letters that were written from the Front are found in other repositories and in private custody, the survival of a collection in a parish context is rare,” says Dr Hood.

The parish of Dundela was formed in 1876, the first “modern” parish to be created in the growing suburbs of rapidly expanding east Belfast in the second half of the 19th century. Saint Mark’s Church was built in a prominent position on the crest of Bunker’s Hill, on the main Holywood Road going towards the Bangor Road.

The church was designed by the English Tractarian architect, William Butterfield, and was consecrated on 22 August 1878. The church’s distinctive sandstone bell-tower could once seen all over Belfast and whilst continues to be a conspicuous landmark.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dundela parish had a varied and interesting social profile, representative of Belfast’s diverse and growing population. Carved originally from the wealthy parish of Holywood, where many prominent Belfast families had their houses and villas, Dundela had its share of leading merchant and manufacturing families, a growing number of professional lawyers and doctors who tended to run the business side of parochial life through the select vestry and parish committee.

The social diversity of Dundela was enriched by numerous working class families linked with Belfast’s factories, mills and shipyards, and many of them lived in the village of Strandtown, nearer to Knockbreda parish from which the parish of Dundela had been carved. In the history of the parish, St Mark’s, Dundela, 1878–1978 (Newtownards, 1978), Professor JC Beckett says the parish origins lie in meeting the spiritual needs and religious teaching of these families.

By 1914, on the eve of the World War I, Dundela parish about 450 families, many of them living in Strandtown. The Revd Arthur Barton was appointed to Dundela just four months before the outbreak of World War I. During the war, he cut a dashing figure In Dundela as he cycled around the parish, visiting and supporting families missing their loved ones and trying to encourage a wider spirit of community among those left behind.

In March 1918, the parish magazine recorded that “several letters have been received from parishioners in France, thanking the congregation for the New Year presents and saying how useful they were in the winter weather.”

The letters provide poignant descriptions of the realities of World War I and its impact on the lives of families in one Belfast parish. All ten letters were written between the end of January and late February 1918, and probably relate to parcels sent before Christmas.

The Rector of Dundela, the Revd Arthur Barton (1881-1962) had been a curate in Saint George’s, Hardwick Place, and Howth, Co Dublin, before moving to Belfast in 1912 as head of the TCD Mission (1912-1914), working in the working class areas of Crumlin and the Shankill. He was Rector of Dundela from 1914 to 1925, and later served as Rector of Bangor (1925-1930), when he was also Archdeacon of Down, and then became Bishop of Kilmore (1930-1939) and Archbishop of Dublin (1939-1956).

The file of his personal papers from his time as rector reveals many of his activities, including a parcel scheme of comforts sent to soldiers from the parish fighting at the Front in late 1917. The details of this scheme are revealed in the letters of thanks sent back to the rector and parishioners from ten of those soldiers. Each letter reveals that the men deeply appreciated their comfort parcels and the thoughts of people at home. Barton felt the letters important enough to keep together in an envelope marked simply “Soldiers’ Presents.”

Dr Hood says it is remarkable that the letters have survived. They were found in the basement of Kilmore See House, outside Cavan town, as part of a much larger volume of diocesan papers. Barton had lived in the house when he was Bishop of Kilmore (1930-1939). He had taken the papers with him from Belfast, but it is not clear why he did not take them with him again when he moved to Dublin as archbishop in 1939. The letters remained buried in a cupboard in Kilmore See House until the archives in the house were transferred to the RCB Library in Dublin in 2007.

Commerford was older than the other nine letter writers. Taken together, these letters provide poignant descriptions of the realities of World War I and its impact on the lives of families in one Belfast parish. All ten letters were written between the end of January and late February 1918, and probably relate to parcels sent before Christmas.

CS Lewis … also a parishioner of Saint Mark’s Church

Dundela is also of interest as the home parish of CS Lewis (1898-1963), who is best remembered today for the Screwtape Letters. CS Lewis had been baptised in Saint Mark’s Church in 1899 by his maternal grandfather, the Revd Thomas Hamilton, then rector of the parish; his father, Albert Lewis, a solicitor, was originally from Cork.

By 1911, when Daniel Commerford was living in Dundela, Lewis had been sent to school in England, and was a pupil at Barton’s old school in Watford, Wynyard School, from 1908. He returned to Dundela after Barton became Rector of Saint Mark’s in 1914, and refers affectionately to Barton in his autobiography.

In 1917, Lewis left University College Oxford to volunteer in the British army and was commissioned in the Somerset Light Infantry. He arrived at the front line in the Somme Valley in France on 19th birthday, and experienced trench warfare.

On 15 April 1918, two months after Daniel Commerford wrote to Barton, Lewis was wounded and two of his colleagues were killed by a British shell falling short of its target. On his recovery in October, he was sent to Andover. He was discharged in December 1918, and soon returned to Oxford, receiving a first in Greats in 1922 and a first in English in 1923.

Oxford, described by Matthew Arnold as the “city of dreaming spires” … Daniel Commerford and CS Lewis had very different experiences of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Did Daniel Commerford and CS Lewis ever know one another?

Did they ever share their reminiscences of Arthur Barton?

Did they ever talk about their very divergent experiences of Oxford?

Did they ever meet in France?

Do Daniel Commerford’s children have any living descendants?

Dr Hood’s research shows that Commerford and the nine other letter writers appear to have survived World War I, although the year in which they wrote, 1918, was the most costly in terms of British and Irish casualties. The names of 31 men from the parish who died during World War I are recorded on the 1914-1918 memorial in St Mark’s, but none of the letter writers is among them. Further research by Dr Hood at the Somme Heritage Centre in Newtownards, Co Down, shows that none of the ten Dundela soldiers was killed in the war.

“We must conclude that all the letter writers made it safely back from the Front to reconstruct their lives. It may yet be possible to trace their story thereafter using other archival sources – a story to be continued.”

Dr Hood first told the full story of the letters in Irish Archives, the Journal of the Irish Society for Archives vol 17 (2009). But all these questions remain unanswered. She would like to find any living relatives of Daniel Commerford, adding: “I would be very grateful, as we would like to share with them the content of the letter.”

[1] Letter No 4, from Daniel Commerford, RCB Library, D3/11/9.3.3.