Letter to Timothy Smiddy regarding a parcel of pheasants sent as a Christmas present from His Majesty King George V, 18 December 1930
Timothy Smiddy (1875–1962), economist, academic, and diplomat, was born 30 April 1875 in Cork. He was educated at St Finbarr's College, Cork, at QCC, at Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and at the Handelshochschule, Cologne, where he was awarded his MA degree. In 1909 he was appointed professor of economics at UCC; he held this position until 1923. By 1923 he was dean of the faculty of commerce at UCC and warden of the Honan hostel, and had unsuccessfully stood for the presidency and registrarship of the college in 1919.
A close friend of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, Smiddy was an economic adviser to the treaty delegation in London in 1921. In March 1922 he was sent by Collins as the envoy and fiscal agent of Dáil Éireann to the US, and remained in Washington until 11 January 1929. On 7 October 1924 he was appointed Ireland's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the US. He was the first diplomatic agent officially appointed by the Irish Free State, and the appointment was important in raising the profile of the Irish Free State in the US as an independent state.
He was appointed Irish high commissioner in London on 5 February 1929, and held the post to 14 December 1930, on the basis that the appointment was always going to be temporary. While in London he represented Ireland at the 1930 London naval conference.
Source: Dictionary of Irish Biography
The letter featured in this December’s Document of the Month is dated just days after Smiddy’s departure from London.
UCDA P319/52 Letter to Timothy Smiddy regarding a parcel of four pheasants sent as a Christmas present from His Majesty King George V, 18 December 1930. The letter is signed by W. Hynes, Secretary to the High Commissioner, informing Smiddy that he sent the parcel to 6 Cadogan Court, and formally acknowledged their receipt.
