Maria Lucy ‘Lucie’ (Davis) GLANCY
Registered at birth as Maria Lucy and known as “Lucie” the oldest child of John DAVIS and Kate O’SHEA was born 4 July 1882 in Cork.
At the age of 30 she married Patrick GLANCY, on February 14th 1912. Patrick called himself a sergeant in the R.I.C. although he was a constable at the time of his retirement and this rank may have been an exaggeration. [1]
Maria Lucy DAVIS and Patrick GLANCY had two known children, the first born five and a half months into their marriage:
i. Katherine Eveline b. 30 July 1912, Naas, County Kildare. Known as “Fluffy” and called herself Eve as an adult.
ii. Patrick John b. 24 June 1914, Naas, County Kildare. Known as “Jack”.
Patrick’s R.I.C. pension documentation shows that Patrick was 10 years older than Lucie DAVIS, and was a constable at the time of his retirement on September 8th 1916 when his children were four and two years old. [2]
In the left-hand column of the record we can see a reference to Mrs. GLANCY, 75 Oliver Plunkett St, Cork. This confirms it’s the right Patrick GLANCY and that Lucie was living back in her father’s home. The record shows Patrick’s pension was being paid to him in Cork South but then we can see it struck out in pencil and Liverpool 1/7/22 noted underneath.
I have found no definitely-him records of Patrick in Liverpool and he is not there in the 1939 England and Wales register. Nor have I found any further R.I.C. pension records at this stage.
Patrick GLANCY was listed as dead on “Fluffy”’s marriage certificate in 1942.
According to daughter Eve “Fluffy” (Glancy) O’DONOVAN Lucie was a “full-time working mother.” She worked as “a secretary in a firm that became swallowed up by…Cork Milling Co.” and worked to within a year of her death.
Lucie, aged 73, died in St Finbar’s hospital, Cork in 1955. She was recorded as the widow of a labourer. Her address was given as 204 Connolly Rd, Ballyphehane.
Lucie was the last of John DAVIS’s children to live in Cork.
Lucie is buried at St. Joseph’s cemetery, along with her parents, sister Georgina (Russell) and her uncle. They are buried in Section 2, Row: St. Laurence.
Photo: September 2024
Lucie’s descendants
i. Katherine Eveline – Catherine Evelyn “Fluffy” GLANCY was born on 30 July 1912 in Naas. Patrick had been transferred to County Kildare from Cork after his marriage. She was known as “Fluffy” and called herself Eve in correspondence in the 1980s and 90s.
Fluffy resided in Cork after the break down of her parents’ marriage.
In correspondence Fluffy described her involvement with Fr. J.C. O’Flynn’s Shakespearean Theatre Co. – The Loft. She was a member for five years and played “many principal parts including The Shrew and Queen Gertrude.”
At the age of 22, Fluffy performed in one of Cork’s three amateur operatic groups, the Cork Theatrical Company. She played the role of Marischka (a hill girl) in the musical comedy “Brighter Brigands”. In an article from the Irish Examiner of April 16th 1934, Fluffy’s part is listed amongst the “other important parts.”
The production received a favourable review in the Irish Examiner of Tuesday 24 April, 1934.
Fluffy married, aged 30, to Cornelius John O’DONOVAN in Cork on 26 December 1942. At the time of her marriage, Fluffy was living in her mother’s family home at 75 Oliver Plunkett St. Fluffy’s witness was her first cousin once removed, Ita Davis (later McGINLEY). Ita was only two years older than Fluffy.
In correspondence Fluffy reports adopting a baby girl in Cork.
After the death of her mother Lucie, the family moved to the UK in 1957. Fluffy and Cornelius reportedly separated around 1967.
Fluffy was the informant for her aunt Evelyn DAVIS’s death in Birkenhead, Cheshire (UK) in 1972. It is evident in correspondence that Fluffy lived at the same address as her aunt Evelyn – 14 Chester Street, Wallasey in Merseyside.
Fluffy’s husband Cornelius (b. 27/07/1914) died 16 October 1982 in Wallasey district, Merseyside.
Fluffy moved up to Horwich, Bolton around 1985 to be nearer her daughter. She emigrated to Australia (est. 1987) with her daughter and daughter’s first husband and lived there for three years. During this time Fluffy acquired an Equity card and did some TV work. Following the end of her daughter’s marriage Fluffy and daughter returned to Bolton, UK (est. 1991) and Fluffy continued her amateur theatrical activity . In late 1993 Fluffy returned to Australia with her daughter and daughter’s new partner and their son (b. 1991).[3]
Fluffy died 14 July 2007. Her remains are interred at Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium in North Ryde, Ryde City (northern Sydney suburbs), New South Wales.
ii. Patrick John was born in Naas on 24 June 1914. He was known as ‘Jack’.
He served in the Royal Air Force in WW2.
According to his sister Fluffy, soon after arriving in the UK Jack met a Welsh woman and they married. Jack married in the 2nd quarter of 1940 in Crewe, Cheshire to Phyllis Audrey FOULKES. Their one daughter and three sons were born 1941 – 1951.
After his mother’s death in Cork, Jack and family left from Southampton on the New Australia to arrive 23 May 1956 in Melbourne, Australia. They settled in Adelaide. Prior to departure they had been living in Birkenhead. Birkenhead is on the Wirral Peninsula, opposite Liverpool.
Jack is recorded on an Ancestry tree as having died in 1986 in Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, Australia. [4] His wife Phyllis died 4th March 1991 and is interred at Enfield Memorial Park, Clearview, Port Adelaide Enfield City, South Australia.[5] According to his sister Fluffy’s correspondence they were divorced.
Fluffy provided the following information on her niece and nephews:
- All had married, divorced and remarried.
- The oldest, Jack and Phyllis’s daughter, had two daughters and had lived in Queensland and Adelaide.
- One son was a drama teacher.
- A son lived in Bristol, UK and then in the Dordogne, France.
- Another son was a musician, playing guitar in the band Sounds of Silence and later ran his own commercial TV firm in Adelaide.
Georgina Kate (Davis) RUSSELL
Georgina was born in Cork on 5 April 1884, the second daughter of John and Kate (O’Shea) DAVIS.
In the 1911 Census Georgina, like her mother, had no given employment listed, which suggests she may have been doing domestic duties in the home.
Georgina was the informant for her father’s death. We can assume she was living with him and looking after him at 75 Oliver Plunkett Street. Seven months to the day after her father’s death on 16th January 1926, at the age of 42, Georgina married John RUSSELL, a Garda[6], at St Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork. At the time Georgina had no occupation. It seems her niece Fluffy GLANCY, not yet 14 years old, was her witness.
Unbelievably, Georgina’s new life was short lived. She died 13 months later, and her cause of death was given as bronchitis 16 days and cardiac.[7]
Georgina was buried in St. Joseph’s cemetery, in her family plot in Section 2, Row St. Laurence.
Fluffy, in communications in the 1980s, wrote that her aunt George had pneumonia and was eight months pregnant at the time of her death – ‘she died and the child was not born.’ [8]
Robert Davis
John and Kate’s first son was born 10 December 1886 when the family lived at Sundays Well Ave, Cork.
He died aged 9 years on 24 April 1896, having had meningitis for six days.
Fluffy referred to him as Robbie in her correspondence.
John George Davis
See separate post.
Evelyn Margaret Davis
Evelyn, the youngest of John and Kate’s children was born 5 July 1890, weeks after the birth of her uncle George DAVIS and Mary B. (O’Callaghan)’s first child Maria. She was recorded as Eveline on the registration of her birth but the family used the spelling Evelyn.
It was noted on the 1911 census that Evelyn was a student at the University of London. It seems likely from newspaper articles from 1901-1904 that Evelyn studied music at the Cork Municipal School of Music. [9]
Evelyn was a teacher.
I can find no definitely-Evelyn records for her between 1911 and her death record.[10] I had hoped to find a record of her in the 1921 English census, released 6 January 2022. Sadly, there’s no record of her in England. The search continues for her adult years.
By the end of her life, Evelyn lived at 14 Chester Street, Wallasey, a two bedroom, end of terrace house. Her niece Fluffy lived there also, perhaps after her marriage broke down.[11]
Evelyn died at the General Hospital, Birkenhead, Cheshire, England on May 3rd 1972. Her death was notified by her niece, Fluffy.
There is no record of probate 1972 – 1973.
Fluffy does not mention her aunt in her correspondence of the 1980s and 90s. I found this strange, given she lived at the same address and probably lived with Evelyn for some period.
[1] According to daughter Eve (Glancy) O’DONOVAN’s correspondence to George WADDING 16/12/1980 ‘My mother had married against her family’s wishes a man who drank and gambled to excess and eventually had to return to her father’s house, resume her job and work until within a year of her death.’ It is possible Patrick GLANCY was demoted and that his rank at the time of his marriage was not a fiction.
[2]Given the timing of Patrick’s retirement I checked military records but there is no sign of him having served in WW1.
[3] Fluffy’s daughter and partner then had a daughter in New South Wales (b. 1994).
[4] Fitzpatrick family tree on Ancestry. Confirmed in Eve ‘Fluffy’ (Glancy) O’DONOVAN’s correspondence to Geo WADDING 21/01/1987.
[5] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170728996
[6] An Garda Síochána was formed in 1922, replacing the Royal Irish Constabulary.
[7] Bronchitis – the Davis affliction.
[8] Fluffy Glancy, in her correspondence in the 1980s, described her aunt George as a second mother to herself and younger brother Jack.
[9] We know that George DAVIS’s children played various instruments (piano, cello, violin) to a good standard.
[10] Evelyn Margaret Davis is currently a bit of a mystery.
I haven’t found a record of her in the University of London student records (1906-1918). Given Evelyn was a teacher she may have trained at an adjunct institution.
A ship manifold for the Ardeola in April 1929 shows a Miss E.M. DAVIS, aged 38 travelling first class, on a round trip to Madeira and the Canary Islands from Liverpool. She gave her occupation as Principal Private School and the address Stoneygate College, Leicester. I presume she was travelling alone as no-one else on the ship’s manifold in 1st class gave the address of Leicester. Right age and occupation. Stoneygate, no longer in existence, was formerly known as Franklin’s Academy and attracted the children of non-conformists and businessmen in references I have found for the late 1800s. It is now a grade two listed building.
The only Evelyn M Davis in the 1939 Register is for a teacher whose given D.O.B. was 5 July 1893 (right day and month, wrong year – not the first time I’ve seen this happen in the 1939 Register). She was living with a Genevieve O’Brien of the same age whose occupation was ‘unpaid domestic duties’ in Paignton, Devon. Any connection? (I have found no other records for an Evelyn M Davis born 5 July 1893.) Genevieve died in 1951 and probate was settled in favour of what looks to be her fellow spinster sister.
[11] Evidenced in her correspondence and on the death certificate of her aunt.
In Search of Thomas Davis 