Life
1801-1879; ed, Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; engaged by Ordnance Survey
of England and Wales, 1824-26; Director on Irish Ordnance Survey, 1828-46
[var. 1845]; employed George Petrie, John O’Donovan, Eugene O’Curry
and others; Census Commisioner, 1841; Commissioner on Colleges, 1845;
of Public Works, 1846-49; commission on reform of Dublin Corporation,
1849; Dep. Chairman Board of Works, 1850-53; Under-Secretary of Ireland,
1853; KCB, 1860; firm Unionist seeking fair dispensation of law in both
countries DNB DIH.
[ top ]
Criticism
Thomas H. Jordan, Two Thomases: Dublin Castle and the Quality of Life
in Victorian Ireland [Social Indicators Research, Vol. 64, Issue
2] (Dordrecht 2003), pp..257 [Drummond and Larcom].
R. F. Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch (London: Allen Lane/Penguin
1993), pp. 6, 309);
J. H. Andrews, A Paper Landscape, The Ordnance Survey in Nineteenth Century Ireland (OUP 1975).
[ top ]
Notes
Doherty & Hickey, A Chronology of Irish History since
1500 (Gill & Macmillan 1989), under "Ordnance": begun
in 1830 under Col. Thomas Colby of the Royal Engineers, assted by Lieut.
Thomas Larcom [q.v.], whose idea it was that the survey should embrace
every item of local information relating to the country; headings for
surveyors, Natural topography; ancient topography; modern topography;
social economy; first report appeared in 1838, but govt. decided to discontiue
on grounds of expense; commission of 1843 examined Petrie and other witnesses
and recommended that the Survey be continued but the govt. rejected its
findings. [DNB, is under-secretarial ‘adminstration marked by steady
increase in prosperity’].
Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast) holds Larcom, Thomas Aiskew, The Cromwellian Survey of Ireland (Dublin 1851).
Hyland Books (Oct. 1995) lists Correspondence respecting the Scale for the Ordnance Survey & upon Contouring & Hill Delineation (1854), 373pp., incl. letters of Larcom, Colby, Griffith, et al.
John O’Donovan’s 7-vol. edn. of the Annals of the
Four Masters (1848-51) is dedicated to Thomas Larcom: ‘The editor
has also been assisted by various others, but more especially by his friend,
Captain Larcom, R.E., who had been the active promoter of Irish literature,
antiquities, and statistics, ever since the summer of 1825 and who, during
his connexion with the Ordnance Survey, exerted himself most laudably
to illustrate and preserve the monuments of ancient Irish history and
topography.’ (See Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde, 1974,
n., p.198.)
Roof collapses in Phoenix House where priceless collection of Placenames Dept. is stored; formerly the responsibility of Dept. of Finance, now under Ministry for Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht; Ms. Sheila de Valera answers questions as minister on removal to Tullamore, considered unviable in view of location of four archivists and necessary contact with TCD Library, Registry of Deeds and National Library. (See Irish Times, 1 April 2000).
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)