Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameSir James GILDEA, 13247
Birth1838
Death1920
Spouses
Unmarried
ChildrenKathleen Octavia , 13243 (1866-1951)
Notes for Sir James GILDEA
From Oxford DNB

Gildea, Sir James (1838–1920), army officer and philanthropist, was born at Kilmaine, co. Mayo, on 23 June 1838, the third son of George Robert Gildea (1803–1887), Church of Ireland clergyman, later provost of Tuam, and his wife, Esther (1802–1894), only daughter and heiress of Thomas Green of Greenmount, co. Wexford. After schooling at St Columba's College, co. Dublin, he was an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Cambridge (1855–8), where he rowed, thrice failed the relatively undemanding previous examination, and left without a degree. He married on 24 August 1864 Rachel Caroline (1844–1888), second daughter of Arthur Kett Barclay of Bury Hill, Dorking, landowner and head of the Barclay–Perkins firm of brewers; they had three surviving children, a son and two daughters.

From 1862 Gildea was an officer in the 2nd Warwick militia, which after the Cardwell army reforms became the 4th battalion, Royal Warwickshire regiment. He was promoted lieutenant in 1862, captain in 1866, major in 1883, and lieutenant-colonel in 1890. He was colonel commanding the 6th battalion from 1890 to 1898 and honorary colonel of the 4th battalion (special reserve) from 1908 to 1920.

The militia gave status but little opportunity, and its more enterprising officers looked elsewhere. Gildea became a charity organizer, and as such well known. He served with the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (later the British Red Cross) in the Franco-Prussian War. He raised funds for widows and orphans from the Zulu and the Second Afghan wars, and was treasurer and secretary to both. He was treasurer in England of the Indian Patriotic and Bombay Military Relief Funds, organizing secretary of Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses (1890–95), a promoter and the treasurer of the St John Ambulance Association, and assistant almoner of the order of St John of Jerusalem.

Gildea's greatest achievement was the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association (SSFA). In February 1885, at the time of the Gordon relief expedition, he wrote to The Times appealing for funds and volunteers to help the service families left behind. He appealed especially on behalf of wives not ‘on the strength’ (that is not entitled to housing and allowances), ‘respectable women … a most deserving class’ who, if not assisted, faced ‘the streets or the workhouse’ (The Times, 26 Feb 1885, 8). He founded the SSFA with himself as chairman and treasurer, positions he held until his death.

Important to the SSFA's success from the outset was the support Gildea obtained from Alexandra, Princess of Wales. She was the founding president in 1885 and was, according to Gildea, for more than thirty years ‘the mainstay of the Association’ (Gildea, Historical Record, dedication). Following her, other royalty and aristocrats joined; in 1893 Gildea announced that ‘almost every lady member of the Royal family’ took an active part (ibid., 40). Gildea gained War Office co-operation and, although the duke of Cambridge was conspicuously absent, the support of senior officers including the duke of Connaught, Viscount Wolseley, and Earl Roberts.

The SSFA was essentially a ladies' organization, with royal and aristocratic women, and generals' wives, prominent on the committee. It was run nationally by Gildea, who worked hard, without remuneration. In 1889 he refused a salary of £600. Initially he was assisted by his daughter Kathleen (1866–1951) as honorary secretary; not until 1896, after her marriage in the previous year, was a paid secretary appointed. Her husband, Sir George Edward Wickham Legg (1870–1927), of the South Staffordshire regiment, held the secretaryship for over thirty years. Legg's appointment was followed in 1899 by that of a typist and in 1901 of an assistant secretary.

In 1886 Gildea initiated the officers' branch to help officers' widows and children. In 1892, knowing from Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses the benefit of district nurses, he started the SSFA nursing branch, which provided district nurses, ‘Alexandra nurses’, for service families. In 1899 he initiated a project for housing needy officers' widows and daughters, which at first provided rented accommodation in Chelsea and then, under the SSFA's auspices and largely financed by Alexandra, the purpose-built Royal Homes, Queen Alexandra's Court, Wimbledon, opened by the king and queen in July 1905.

From 1885 the SSFA provided assistance, financial and other, to service families. It grew, with a network of local committees, and in 1899 it had over 3000 volunteers. Under Gildea's treasurership it accumulated significant investments, the income from which came to exceed that from donations. Its task hugely increased during the South African War. In 1899 it was unable fully to cope, and entered an unhappy temporary arrangement with the Charity Organization Society, which the SSFA ended in March 1900. C. S. Loch criticized the SSFA, and Gildea defended it in a long letter to The Times (9 March 1900). During the South African War the SSFA expended about £1,250,000, to about 200,000 families. In the First World War the SSFA expanded to over 50,000 volunteers, and distributed more than twice as much as in the South African War.

An imperialist and opponent of Irish home rule, Gildea publicly declared his support for Ulster in 1914. He was appointed CB (1898), CVO (1901), knight (1902), KCVO (1908), and GBE (1920), and received the King Edward and Queen Alexandra personal gold medal. In 1917, during the sale of honours scandal, Lord Selborne in the House of Lords spoke of Gildea as ‘known by name to all your Lordships and personally to many of you’ (Hansard 5L, 1917, 26.845). His supposed influence was shown by his being offered large sums for the SSFA if he would use his influence to obtain a baronetcy or a knighthood for the donor; he refused.

Gildea's publications were largely on service charities. For Remembrance and in Honour of Those Who Lost Their Lives in the South African War, 1899–1902 (1911), on South African War memorials in the United Kingdom and the empire, is of continuing value. After ‘working right up to the end’, he died on 6 November 1920 at his home, 11 Hogarth Road, Earl's Court, London, and was interred at Brookwood, Surrey, on 12 November.
Last Modified 30 Nov 2013Created 4 Mar 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh