Grenville & Blanche (née Vernon) Cole, a Pedalling Partnership made in Heaven.
THE WEDDING
On the 16th April 1895 Grenville Arthur James Cole married Blanche Vernon of Mount Merrion Dublin at St. Patrick’s Church (CoI), Dalkey. From the account of the wedding given by renowned Irish naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger the newly married couple rode their bicycles down the church aisle to begin life together.
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GRENVILLE COLE
Grenville Cole (1859-1924) was the English-born son of the architect John Jenkins Cole (1815-1897) designer of the London Stock Exchange. Grenville had studied geology at the Royal School of Mines where in 1878 he was appointed ‘demonstrator’ and later as Head of the Geology Department at Bedford College for Ladies before finally, in 1890, taking up the post of Professor of Geology and Minerology at the Royal College of Science for Ireland in Dublin.
BLANCHE VERNON
Blanche Vernon (1863-1927) was the daughter of John Edward Vernon the land agent for the Earl of Pembroke and related to the Vernon family of Clontarf Castle. She had attended Professor Cole’s early lectures and they married five years later.
EARLY ADVENTURES
In 1892 Cole, already an experienced tricyclist, had explored the geology of Bohemia on his Humber-Beeston ‘Cripper’ tricycle before continuing with his cycling companion Gerard W. Butler who rode a high-wheeled Penny-farthing. Two years later he published The Gypsy Road , from Krakow to Koblenz a whimsical travelogue with social commentary on their adventures.
SHARED LIFE ON WHEELS
Following their marriage Grenville and Blanche continued to tour Europe together by bicycle each September and co-authored As We Ride in 1902, a work published in aid of The Royal City of Dublin Hospital, Baggot Street. They authored four chapters/essays each on various cycle tours in Poland, Germany, France and the Balkans.
THE 1895 TOUR
‘To him who at each sunset post
Held wide the door, our welcome host;
To these, on many a country-side,
Our thanks be given, as we ride.’
From the dedication in As We Ride
One of the essays, written by Grenville, was titled ‘A Persecution by the Jews’ which tells of their cycle tour from Nurnberg in Germany via Passau to Vienna capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and then after six days to Zsolna ‘hemmed in by grey walls of the Carpathians’. Deciding to make Krakow in Poland their final destination they passed from Silesia into Galicia with its numerous Jewish villages where they sought nightly rest but encountered difficulty obtaining refreshment on the Jewish sabbath which prompted the use of ‘persecution’ in the title. This tour must have occurred in September 1895 as that was the only year in which Yom Kippur and the Jewish Sabbath coincided, as mentioned in the text.
It is also notable that as their only son Vernon was born in February 1896 it would appear that Blanche was already pregnant when they undertook this particular cycle tour.
BLANCHE AS WRITER
Blanche was the author of the essay ‘Sons of Mars’ where she describes a tour in France in September 1896 or ’97 “before the Dreyfus scandal” and encountering the French Army on their annual manoeuvrers making the comment “War is an undesirable occupation and seldom profitable; but if one must fight, please give me the French to fight with, and let the Germans fight someone else.”
THE BALKANS & ORAHOVA
They particularly enjoyed touring in the Balkans and one of the essays, written by Blanche is titled ‘Orahova’ after a village they visited and was also the name they gave their final home in Carrickmines, Co. Dublin which they purchased in 1902.
BLANCHE THE ARTIST
Blanche was apparently an accomplished artist who produced fine drawings to illustrate her husband’s published papers.
THE STUDENT TOURS
Between 1903 and 1908 Cole led field-trips by train and bicycle for his second-year agricultural students to study the geology and agricultural botany of Ireland. Unfortunately, these popular cycle tours had their funding cut in 1908 effectively bringing them to an end.
A LASTING LEGACY
Grenville suffered from rheumatoid arthritis in his later years but still was active in Irish academic circles up to his death in 1924. Blanche died three years later.
They were both intrepid cyclists who recorded life in Europe before the great cataclysm that was WWI.
Story by Brian Phelan.
Brian is a retired merchant navy radio officer living in Dublin, now in his mid-70s. A lifelong cycling enthusiast, he has spent decades touring both in Ireland and abroad. Over the past ten to fifteen years, his passion has extended to early cycling history, leading him to build an extensive collection of books and ephemera on the subject.
Check out our previous cycling story from Brian Phelan: R J ‘Arjay’ Mecredy the Father of Irish Cycling | Season 5 – Episode 33
If you have an idea for a story, please email Kevin Reid at [email protected]
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Sources of Information, Photo & Video Credits:
As we Ride (1902) – the National Library
As We Ride by Grenville & Blanche Cole (1902)
As We Ride, es says on touring Europe in the late-19th C., by Brian Phelan
Four Centuries of Geographical Travel, The search for knowledge on foot, bicycle, sledge and camel edited by R. N. Wyse Jackson published by The Geological Society London 2007
Link to digital copy gypsyroadjourney00coleiala.pdf
Link to my article on it; From Krakow to Coblentz: A cycling journey in 1892, by Brian Phelan
The Gypsy Road by Grenville Cole (1894)
The National Library of Ireland Kildare Street, Dublin
YouTube: 1888 Humber Cripper tricycle – Groovy dubber
