George Thomas Whyte inherited Loughbrickland house from his fatgher in 1915. But George Thomas actually needed to earn his own living, since the estate no longer provided enough, once the lands had been sold, and he had a career that took him out of the country a lot. He was a doctor – qualified in the College of Surgeons 1893 and then worked as a doctor in Coolgardie Australia for 6 years from 1894, then in South Africa in the Boer War, took a further qualification in Tropical Medicine in 1902, worked in Nigeria, on a cruise ship, in France with the Royal Army Medical Corps and transferred back to Dublin because of his father’s serious illness in 1915.
He then worked in Dublin and from 1918 on Spike Island in Cork. He succeeded to the estate in 1915, married in 1916 and sadly died in 1919 and is commemorated in the church by a brass plaque and stations of the cross – leaving his widow Magda (who came from Cork) as tenant for life. They had one daughter Bunty. It can’t have been easy for Magda. There were Trustees in charge of the estate and everything had to go through them. Her income was very limited as the land holding was really too small to be viable. The agricultural land was let to local farmers – as it is to this day bringing in a small income which helps to maintain the estate.. But she lived a very active life, she was a Justice of the Peace, continuing the family tradition and managed the estate as best she could. She was active in the British Legion and I believe in other organizations supporting the army especially during WWII. Many in the village remember her driving intrepidly and sometimes apparently somewhat erratically in her little red car. She died in 1972.
1868 Apr 22. Born
1916 Nov 7 Married in Dublin to Magda Grehan
1919 June 9.died of hypostatic pneumonia at Rushbrooke, Queenstown Co Cork CWGC
