EATON, TIMOTHY 1834-1907

Timothy Eaton was born at Clogher, Ballymena, County Antrim. He emigrated to Canada and opened a general shop in St Mary's, Ontario, with his two brothers. He moved to Toronto in 1868 and established a store that sold items for a fixed price in cash, and subsequently created one of the largest department stores in America. He believed in early closing and was the first employer to initiate this. The welfare of his employees was of concern to him. He died in Toronto. [Biography by N. A. Smith, 1923]

EDGAR, JOHN 1798-1866

John Edgar was born in Ballynahinch, County Down, and was educated in Belfast and Glasgow. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in Belfast in 1820 and became Professor of Theology in 1826. He received a doctorate of Divinity from Hamilton College, New York, in 1836 and in 1842 became moderator of the general assembly. The body of his work dealt with his commitment to Temperance though he did not approve of the teetotal movement. He organised relief committees for famine victims in 1847 and later founded a refuge for women. In 1860 he became Doctor of Laws. He edited many periodicals, and his Select Works was published in Belfast in 1868. [Memoir by W. D. Killen, 1867]

EDWARDS, R. W. early 20th century

R. W. Edwards was a rugby international forward who played for the Malone Club in Belfast. He played for Ireland when they won against Wales in 1904. He became the only Irish international selected on the 1904 Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand.

EDWARDS, WILLIAM VICTOR 1887-1917

William Edwards was born in Strandtown, Belfast and was a rugby international, a swimmer and water polo player. In rugby he won two international caps for Ireland in 1912. In swimming he was the Irish 200 yard champion and also a water polo cham-pion. He is said to have been the first man to swim Belfast Lough. He was killed in action at Jerusalem.

EDMUNDSON, WILLIAM 1627-1712

William Edmundson was born in Westmorland, and was apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner in the city of York. He served in the army of Cromwell in the campaigns in England and Scotland. In 1652 he came to Ireland and opened a shop in Antrim. On hearing the preaching of the Quaker James Naylor, he was convinced of the worthiness of his doctrine. In 1654 he and other members of his family held at Lurgan, County Armagh, the first regular meeting of the Quakers in Ireland. Subsequently meetings were established at Dublin, Derry, Cork, Waterford and other commercial centres. Because of the unorthodox doctrines which the Quakers practised, they were persecuted, and William Edmundson was imprisoned seven times without charge. He visited the West Indies and America on three occasions, on the first of which he was accompanied by George Fox. During the war of 1689-91 the Friends in Ireland were victimised. William Edmundson appealed to James II to relieve the suffering in Ireland. He died at Rosenallis, near Mountmellick, and his Journal was published in 1715.

ELLIOTT, CHARLES 1792-1869

Charles Elliott was born in Killybegs, County Donegal, and was educated in Dublin. When he was twenty-two he went to America and became a superintendent of Methodist missions and Residing Elder of Ohio District. He was appointed Professor of Languages at Madison College and President of Iowa Wesleyan Union. He edited many religious periodicals and wrote several books, particularly connected with the history of Weslyanism. He died in Iowa.

ELLISON-MACARTNEY, WILLIAM GREY see MACARTNEY, WILLIAM GREY ELLISON

EMERSON, NORMAN DAVID 1900-1966

Norman Emerson was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was ordained in 1924 and became a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, from 1954 to 1961, when he became Dean. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and President of the Irish Historical Society from 1960 to 1962. Among his publications are An Account of Archbishop Ussher and a History of the Church of Ireland in three volumes.

ENSOR, GEORGE 1769-1843

George Ensor was born in Dublin and was educated at Trinity College. He was called to the Bar in 1792 and was a grand juror of County Armagh, where he died at Ardress. He wrote many pamphlets, among which are Principles of Morality; The Independent Man; National Education; Refutation of Malthus; Defence of the Irish and Anti-Union, 1831.

EOGHAN, ST d.618

Eoghan was born in County Tyrone, and was related to the chieftains of Leinster and Ulster. He was carried off by pirates to Britain as a boy, educated by Saint Ninian and taken to Armorica. When he returned to Ireland, he founded a monastery at Hy Culann in Wicklow, and is said to have converted the chief of Ardstraw, County Tyrone, to Christianity. He assisted Tigernach to found monasteries in Ulster.

ERARD, ST d.754

St Erard was born, it is thought, at Ardboe on the shores of Lough Neagh. He was a missionary in Europe and is especially known in connection with Ratisbon in Germany. He was canonised in 1052, and his feast-day is on the 8th of January. [Biography by O'Hanlon]

ERVINE, ST JOHN GREER 1883-1971

St John Ervine was born in Ballymacarret, Belfast. After working for three years in an insurance office he emigrated to London at the age of eighteen. For a short period in 1915 he was manager of the Abbey Theatre, where his plays Mixed Marriage, June Clegg and John Ferguson had already been succesful. He was wounded as a lieutenant in the Dublin Fusiliers, and had a leg amputated. He settled in the south west of England. He wrote biographies of Craigavon and Carson, of William Booth, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, as well as publishing seven novels including The First Mrs Fraser and some plays, such as Boyd's Shop and Friends and Relations. Until 1939 he was drama critic for the Observer. He became a member of the Irish Academy of Letters and from 1933 to 1936 was Professor of Dramatic Literature for the Royal Society of Literature. His work reflects the change in his political stance away from nationalism and socialism towards unionism.

ESLER, ERMINDA (nee RENTOUL) b. c.1860

Erminda Rentoul was born in Manor Cunningham, County Donegal. She published many short stories in magazines and her novels, such as The Way of Transgressors, were very popular. Among her other works are The Way They Loved at Grimpat (1893) and Maid of the Manse (1895).

EVANS, EMYR ESTYN 1905-1989

Estyn Evans was brought up on the Welsh border, was educated at Aberystwyth University, and became a lecturer in Geography at Queen's University, Belfast, in 1928. In 1966 the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University was founded, and he became Honorary Director. He was particularly interested in the Irish Neolithic. He established scientific archaeology in Belfast and instituted the systematic survey of historic monuments, becoming chairman of the Ancient Monuments Council and helping to found the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. His research encompassed folklore, myth, legend and the oral tradition, especially in north Antrim and Donegal. His books include Irish Heritage, 1942; Mourne Country, 1951; Irish Folk Ways, 1957; Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland, 1956; The Personality of Ireland, 1973, and an essay collection The Irishness of the Irish, 1985. He was President of the Institute of British Geographers, and of both the Archaeology and Geography sections of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the recipient of a number of honorary doctorates, and of two awards, the Victorian Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and the Merit Award of the Association of American Geographers.

EVATT, GEORGE 1841-1921

George Evatt was born in County Monaghan. He was educated at Queen's College, Belfast and joined the British army as a medic. He wrote many works, was keenly interested in the health of his soldiers, and became surgeon general of the army.

EVERETT, JOSEPH DAVID 1831-1904

Joseph Everett was born in England and was educated in England and Glasgow, where he studied classics, moral philosophy and physical science. For a brief period he was secretary of the Meteorological Society of Edinburgh. For five years, from 1859, he was Professor of Mathematics in Nova Scotia, Canada. His first published paper was on observations of underground temperature. He also investigated atmospheric electricity. He returned to Britain and experimented on the elastic properties of glass under Professor William Thomson in Glasgow. In 1867 he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's College, Belfast, where he remained for nearly thirty years. He published many theoretical physics and mathematical papers, mainly in the Philosophical Magazine and Nature. He also wrote several textbooks, including Units and Physical Constants and invented the term 'erg' for a unit of energy.

EWALD, PAUL PETER 1888-1985

Paul Ewald was born in Berlin and studied at Cambridge, Gottingen and Munich. He was an X-ray technician in the German army during the First World War. He taught in Munich and in 1921 was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Stuttgart. In 1937 he and his family fled from Nazi Germany, and after two years at Cambridge University he became first lecturer and then professor at Queen's University, Belfast, with a period spent as Professor of Physics in America. He was a key figure in the modern science of X-ray crystallography for over sixty years, which has facilitated the understanding of organic molecules such as proteins and DNA. In 1923 he published Kristalle und Roentgenstrallen, and in 1962 Fifty Years of X-Ray Diffraction. He founded, with others, the Strukkurbericht, a repository for results on crystal structure, edited Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie and founded and edited the international journal Acta Crystallographica. He was Secretary-General and then Vice-President of the International Union of Physics, which he had revived. In 1979 he was awarded the first Gregori Aminoff Medal of the Royal Swedish Academy. The International Union of Crystallography, of which he was a co-founder and President, established the Ewald Prize in his honour. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He had five honorary degrees, including those from Stuttgart and the Sorbonne, and in 1978 was awarded the Max Planck Medal, the highest honour of the German Physical Society.

EWART, LAVENS MATHEWSON 1845-1898

Lavens Ewart was born in Belfast and became a linen merchant in the family business. He helped to found the second series of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, which ran from 1895 to 1911, and the first volume of which contained an article by him on the subject of Belfast maps. He wrote The Diocesan Handbook of Down and Connor and Dromore. He was interested in the history of printing in Belfast, and his fine collection of books is now in the Linen Hall Library.