Adam's Works on Paper ONILNE Auction Ending August 10th 2020

87 Works on Paper 245 CAIRO GANG Two ALS regarding the death of the Major Cholmeley Dowling (1891 - 1920), killed on Sunday 21st November 1920 at 28 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin. One from his sister Lillian to their Mother in London Eight pages, and a second letter from a family friend Phyllis to his other sister Rene (Irene) in London, five pages on Shelbourne Hotel paper; together with a photograph of Major Dowling, half length in uniform, 10 x 8cm The ‘Cairo Gang’ was a group of British Intelligence agents who were stationed in Dublin during the Irish War of Independence. Their modus operandi was to conduct surveillance and gather information on prominent figures within the IRA, with the express result, according to Irish intelligence, to assassinate them. The origins of the synonymous name of the gang are somewhat disputed, some thinking it refers to a common history amongst it’s members of serving in the Middle East, others that it was received due to the frequency with which the group met and held meetings at the Café Cairo, on Grafton Street. On the morning of November 21st 1920, a number of addresses around Dublin city were targeted by senior members of the IRA. The assassinations were planned for the same day as the Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary as the large crowds of spectators would make it easier for the squad to move around the city undetected. The members of the Cairo Gang lived in boarding houses and hotels across the city, the location of which was disclosed to Collins and his men through a source within Dublin Castle and a high-ranking police sergeant. Officers on Collins’ intelligence staff had also been acting as double agents, meeting with members of the Cairo Gang, under the pretence of providing information about the IRA. The first target was 28 Upper Pembroke Street, where Major Cholmeley was living. Squad members arrived at the house at 9:00am and were seen jumping over the garden wall by Colonel Wilfrid Woodcock’s wife who did not initially think there was any reason to panic. However, when she saw him remove a revolver from his pocket, she raised the alarm. As Lillian reports in her letter to her mother that Mrs Woodcock ‘had seen the man drop over the garden wall with revolver, she screamed...and then she heard the shot.’ This ‘shot’ refers to the first round fired which killed Major Cholmeley and Captain Leonard Price. This moment is written in detail by Phyllis in her letter to Rene. Affectionately referring to him as ‘Chum’ she recounts that ‘he was laughing and calling for his breakfast....when the men came up. There is a thick stair carpet so they made no sound and they think that they did not call out or knock at the door but shot at Chum as he stood in the doorway, clean through the heart’. Captain Leonard Price was another member of the Cairo Gang, also living in the house and he is remembered in Lillian’s letter as a great friend of Cholmeley’s and when he was ‘at the Curragh, Price had said - I do miss my sweetheart...and he meant Chum’. Lillian and Phyllis both visited Pembroke street and remarked how normal it seemed and upon entering Cholmeley and Price’s rooms finding ‘they are very quiet now - nothing unusual but just the bullet marks in Chummy’s room, one in the ceiling and Captain Price’s in the side of the window sash.’ Three other men were shot, Captain Brian Christopher Headlam Keenlyside, Colonel Wilfrid Woodcock, and Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Montgomery. Woodcock was not an intelligence agent, he happened upon a confrontation on the first floor of the house as he was preparing to leave to command a regimental parade at army headquarters. Dressed in his military uniform he was shot twice in the shoulder and back but survived. In Lillian’s letter to their mother, she and Phyllis have just returned from the hospital and goes to great lengths to stress how peaceful her brother was ‘looking as happy and perfect in death as he ever looked in life’. A sentiment which is repeated by Phyllis in her letter to Rene, who speaks quite frankly that she was very frightened at the thought of seeing a dead body for the first time but ‘Chum was so glorious and so beautiful - that we was just carried away from ordinary sorrow. He was smiling and looking so peaceful and happy that you had to know and believe he was alright. ‘ She goes on further to recount their visit to 28 Upper Pembroke Street where they collected Cholmeley’s clothes and personal belongings remarking on two particular items, ‘at present the watch is running but I think it has been taken off and kept in a safe place but it is not certain. I have the chain’. Major Cholmeley was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London. € 1,500 - 2,000