Found this old sepia tone of Uncle Mert, cooking from his rolling chair, probably sometime around 1937. Funny looking old geezer, wasn't he?
So hundreds of you have written in, asking about Uncle Mert. I did a quick search on our family geneological database for a sketch of him, and came up with these short little notes. Hope you find it interesting.
Mert (Mertram) DeNyal-Dodder McLuggage was an early immigrant from County Kerry, in a plague ship with his parents, Shilaligh and Allison McLuggage, fleeing the porrige famine. Landing in the St Lawrance (they were aiming for Canada, not the US, since they were devout Protestants), they made their way about as far south as Kingston, ON, when the ship was set upon by a press gang which pressed Mert (even at the tender age of 14) into the local mounted infantry (since he was the only one willing to admit that he knew which end the hay went into.)
A cavalryman for the rest of his days, Mert fought with the commonwealth troops in any number of key engagements, including being part of the little known Canadian forces operating with the Sioux, against Custer, at the little big horn; fighting with Wolsley in Ashanti-land; taking part in the harrying from one end of Afganistan to the other of the elusive Sultan of Swat; and finally the viscious retreat from each well-defended pension and auberge in Belgium during 1914. Severely wounded in his drinking elbow at Ypres, he was assigned to training duties for the rest of the Great War, and was not called up for the second. The picture shown here is uncharacteristic, since he appears to be unarmed (except for the spoon). He was, according to family and neighbors, seldom without a sidearm, and usually a carbine and sabre as well. He passed away in 1939, infuriated as usual at being turned down for active duty.
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