Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan was a British soldier and colonial administrator, who variously served as the governor of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Natal and Queensland. He was Under-Secretary for Ireland from 1914 to 1916, and was responsible, with the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, for the administration of Ireland in the years immediately preceding the Easter Rising.
Matthew Nathan
Augustine Birrell KC was a British Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property, and for extending university education for Catholics. But he was criticised for failing to take action against the rebels before the Easter Rising, and resigned. A barrister by training, he was also an author, noted for humorous essays.
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell c1895
Plaque in Greystones, Ireland commemorating the events of 25 October 1910, when Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Hilda Webb challenged Birrell on the suffrage issue.
Birrell caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1906