GEORGE CHARTRES:GEORGE CHARTRES, who has died aged 89, was honorary librarian and vice-president of the Irish Genealogical Research Society. A lover of place, he was devoted both to the work of the society and to his own family background, which had connections to Fermanagh and to France.
He was born in Northern Ireland in 1921, the eldest son of Robert Irvine Chartres of Curragh, Co Fermanagh, and Georgina Rankin of Trory, Co Fermanagh. The family lives at Maguiresbridge.
He went to university at Liverpool School of Architecture where he obtained a B. Arch, and University College, London.
He became a chartered architect, a town planner and a senior lecturer at London’s South Bank Polytechnic.
However, genealogy was his great love and for the past five decades, he was one of the most prominent experts in London on Irish genealogy.
His greatest pride, though, was to be the honorary librarian of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, which, after 75 years, is the oldest society devoted exclusively to the study of Irish genealogy. It was a position he filled with great distinction for nearly 40 years.
It now holds the single largest and most important collection of Irish genealogical books and manuscripts in private hands.
George Chartres wore his learning lightly and carried most of it in his head. Visitors to the library, once he had ascertained their name, would be regaled to a long history of that name, its most famous family members and the venues in Ireland where the name would be found.
With unfailing great patience and good humour, he assisted many scholars of high repute, as well as ordinary people of Irish descent, who came to the library to learn more about their national as well as their personal history.
He was engagingly disorganised and self-depreciating but his warm personality and obvious interest in other people brought an extra dimension to his role as guardian of the library treasures. He treated all people with an old-world courtesy and many visitors returned to the library, confident of a warm welcome and his genuine continued interest in their research.
Group visits, led by Marilyn Morton of Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, were a special highlight of his year. Often he would arrange little soirées, or teas, for the women. He loved producing just the right pedigree, rather like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, for one of the transatlantic visitors.
Chartres was a member of council for the Huguenot Society of Britain and Ireland for two terms of three years each.
He had enormous interest in French genealogy, especially for those families of Orléanais and Norman descent – the origins of the Chartres family were Orléanais.
He had an eye for line and colour in all things from clothes, porcelain, interior decoration and buildings; he was also a keen architectural gardener, for other people, as his flat in London had no garden.
His architectural and drawing skills were put to good use for the society; each time the library was moved into a new home, he drew up inventive plans and designs to squeeze everything in – the result was always tasteful and practical.
He was awarded a fellowship of the Irish Genealogical Research Society in 1976 and was made a vice-president in 1999.
It was his wish on his death that he would be buried with his parents in Derryvullen south parish churchyard, near the hamlet of Tamlaght and Enniskillen town.
The burial service was conducted by his nephew-in-law, the Rev Robert Wallace. His distinguished contribution to the IGRS and to Irish genealogy is readily acknowledged.
Thomas George Chartres: born August 9th, 1921; died April 22nd, 2011.