Series 6 - Robert Monteith memoirs

424pp

Citation for a published source: Smyth, Catherine C. (2017). Monteith: The Making of a Rebel. Wexford: self-published.

Materials regarding Captain Robert Monteith, a native of Wicklow who served 16 years in the British Army in India and South Africa before returning to Ireland and settling in Dublin with wife Mollie. During his time in Dublin he became exposed to James Connolly and the trade union movement, as well as the Irish Volunteers, an organisation he subsequently joined in 1913. Having become sympathetic to the Irish Cause, Monteith's refusal to enlist in the British Army during World War I cost him his job at the Ordnance Depot and resulted in a deportation order for him to leave Dublin. Following a spell in America, Monteith was then stationed by the Irish Volunteers in Germany, his role being to assist Roger Casement in the training of the newly formed Irish Brigade in Berlin. Monteith avoided capture and in December 1916, was finally able to make his escape from Ireland to Liverpool, and then on to New York. Monteith and his wife made a return trip to Ireland in 1947 where they were greeted by President Éamon de Valera. They settled for a time on Sea Road in Kilcoole before returning to the U.S to live their last few years. Monteith died in 1956.
The series includes: a copy of Catherine C. Smyth's Monteith: The Making of a Rebel (2017); photocopies and Miller's typescript copy of sections of Robert Monteith's 1932 book, Casement's Last Adventure, (Dublin: Michael F. Moynihan, 1953 revised edition).; Miller's correspondence with Catherine Smyth and colleagues; secondary source research; a photocopy of Florence Monteith Lynch's The Mystery Man of Banna Strand, (New York: Vantage Press, 1959); Miller's research notes.