Individual Details

RESIDENCE: of Moorland, Didsbury
Special Constable in Manchester 1914-1918. Member of the City Council from (cir) 1910

Following text is prepared from recollection of what Studley Patrick Birley told David Hugh Birley in about 1952; Barbara says some of it is inaccurate, but she hasn't provided any alternative information yet. Her main objection appears to be to geographic references, although she says that the "MacIntosh" segment may also be flawed: He was a manufacturer and had worked at "Birley's Mill" before it was sold. Birley's Mill (mentioned in "The Condition of The Working Class in England in 1832" by Engel - one of the co-founders of Communism, p.228) was one of the major cotton spinning mills of the Midlands of England. Located in the Hulme district of Manchester, England, adjacent to Didsbury where the large family mansion was located, the Birley family were widely known. "Birley's Church" as it is still known by the citizens of Hume was the center of the community, and a member of the Birley family was the presiding priest for more than one period. Fine textiles were produced at the mill, and the Birley family was always open to new ideas. One day a strange Scotsman brought his "wild" idea for making rubber stick to cloth to the Birley Mill. He had already been turned away by many mills located throughout the midlands, but the Birleys took him in and gave him some space to continue with his work. His idea was that by adding sulphur to the liquid rubber, and then applying heat as it was put on the cloth, it wouldn't melt off in hot weather. This process is now known as "vulcanizing" and is basic to the entire rubber industry. The inventor gave his name to the first successful raincoats - and in England it is still the generic name for a raincoat: MacIntosh! Later the Mill was sold to him, and still later it was bought by the Dunlop company. Now there is no textile production at the mill at all, it is devoted entirely to rubber - mostly floor tiles and rubber gloves. The Birley family still owns the fishing rights in the stream that runs under the mill.

SPECIAL CONSTABLE IN MANCHESTER, 1914-1918

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Birth	13 Jul 1870	Pendleton, Lancashire, England
Education	1881	Victoria Road Seafield School - Liscard, Cheshire, England
Marriage	12 Jul 1898	Rainhill, Lancashire, England - Edith Gladys Fernandes Lewis J. P. M. A.
Death	26 Jan 1940	Didsbury, Manchester, England
Dwelling		Didsbury, Stonecroft

Spouse	Edith Gladys Fernandes Lewis J. P. M. A. (1880 - 1976)
Child	Herbert Lewis Birley (1900 - 1984)
Child	Robert Neville Birley (1902 - 1974)
Child	Studley Patrick Birley (1904 - 1962)
Child	Eric Barff Birley (1906 - 1995)
Child	Cicely Edith Birley (1907 - 1996)
Child	Barbara Fernandes Birley B. A. (1910 - 2007)

Father	Herbert Birley J. P. (1821 - 1890)
Mother	Cicely Margaret (1828 - 1909)
Sibling	Hugh Cecil Birley (1855 - 1926)
Sibling	Herbert Edgar Birley (1857 - 1909)
Sibling	Cicely Beatrice Birley (1860 - 1946)
Sibling	Margaret Maude Birley (1865 - 1887)
Sibling	Henry Reginald Birley (1868 - 1914)

Notes