iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The other Royal Fusiliers officer approached to crew Asgard with Shephard was Robert Pipon. He turned down the venture. He turns up in Victoria Schofield's book on Archibald Wavell

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Sholto Douglas in Dublin prior to aerodrome task to visit his father who worked at National Gallery after Hugh Lane killed on the Lusitania.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Sholto Douglas a fan of Gordon Strachey Shephard. Shephard one of the crew of the Asgard, smuggling arms and ammo for the Irish Volunteers. johnny-doyle.blogspot.com/2020/07/asga... Casement involved in creation of the Irish Volunteers and the planning/financing of the gun running operation.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

While I have a large set of books relating to the Easter "Uprising", the following book demonstrates odd connections. Sholto Douglas selected Royal Flying Corps aerodrome sites in Ireland in 1917. Including the one now called Casement.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

dinky Corgi finds matchbox. Die cast.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

OTD 1914. Can you guess from this set of clues?

A series of images from films and TV programmes

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

The interwoven historys of Duke of Westminster armoured cars, Hejaz cars, 3 & 5 Armoured Car Companies (later 6 RTC), 12th Lancers, 11th Hussars, LRDG, and SDF plus Lawrence, Wavell, Pratt, Pope, Bagnold....

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

SDF armoured cars influenced by Duke of Westminsters Rolls-Royces left in Sudan following mutiny. Designed by soldier who started WW1 as RAMC private; ended WW2 as REME Brigadier www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

P47 of official UK WW2 publication The Abyssinian Campaigns showing Sudan Defence Force armoured car.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Enjoy the build 🙂 I have a few of the Tankette magazines too but they mainly focus on Fordson and 1920 pattern with the Army and all in black and white. There is a nice write up of another manfacturers version of the pictured car at www.britmodeller.com/forums/index...

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The Rolls-Royce on the box artwork being the RAF car pictured with Rommel. DM if you need to borrow Rolls-Royce armoured car books.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

The Rolls-Royce armoured car pictured in the article would be in Shanghai the following year with added front bumper, "top hat" hatch on turret, and electric charge option on the armour for anyone too close.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

A small thread on medical students in the 1930s on the other platform... x.com/i/status/132...

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Yesterday's delivery - a tenuous link to the #EasterRising johnny-doyle.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-be…

A picture of book called The Concise Story of the Dover Patrol by Admiral Bacon

A picture of a naval mine field off Belgium from a book called The Concise Story of the Dover Patrol by Admiral Bacon

A picture of a page relating to a naval mine field off Belgium from a book called The Concise Story of the Dover Patrol by Admiral Bacon

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Patrick Pearse another onion fan : catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls0... The #EasterRising surrender a Lowe point in his military career.

Colourised photo of Easter Rising surrender of Patrick Pearse and Elizabeth O'Farrell to General Lowe and his son John Lowe (Loder in acting circles)

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

An AI skeptic making use of Notebook LLM to "read" non searchable PDFs (179 Tunnelling Co, RE War Diary)..... to generate a list of soldiers mentioned...

Notebook LLM screenshot showing results from a query looking into 179 Tunnelling Co war diaries from First World War.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

The original log books for the Helga can be viewed at the UK National Archives at Kew.

Picture of cover of log book for HMY Helga covering period of Easter Rising. Available to view with its other log books at Kew in London.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

A good site. This item though is in need of a re-write. No incendiary ammunition in use and no chance the Helga fired on Sackville St.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

St Patrick's Day 1916 and the crew of former Irish ferry HMS Tara are rescued by armoured cars of Duke of Westminsters squadron. Some cars and personnel later part of Lawrence of Arabia's command.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Having taken part in TanFest 1919-1921, the Rolls-Royce Sliabh na mBan transferred from No 5 Armoured Car Co to the Irish National Army

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Wavell on film following behind Allenby entering Jerusalem. Lawrence in the group behind Wavell. Clip Ref : IWM 13 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

snippet from film showing Archibald Wavell following behind Allenby entering Jerusalem. Full film clip reference IWM 13 at https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060008299

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Wavell gets a mention in the Czar's British Squadron for helping negotiate a transportation issue with the Russians. Wavell on his second posting to Russia at the time.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Wavell's foreword of Ferguson's "Beyond the Chindwin" referencing back to Fox-Davies.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Fox-Davies mentioned in Bernard Ferguson's "Wavell Portrait of a Soldier"

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

MC for Harley Fox-Davies, 1/DLI, signed off by Archibald Wavell for a raid on 14/15th April 1941 near Sollum, Egypt. Possibly against an infantry element of newly arrived 15th Panzer Division @crusaderproject.bsky.social? rommelsriposte.com/2016/04/24/f...

Military Cross write up for Harley Fox-Davies, 1/DLI, signed off by Archibald Wavell for a raid on 14/15th April 1941.

Possibly against an infantry element of newly arrived 15th Panzer Division

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

A previously unpublished picture of a Rolls-Royce armoured car in Dublin just after the #EasterRising made it into the latest Rolls-Royce publication from the Tank Museum, courtesy of @mof1916.bsky.social tankmuseumshop.org/collections/...

Cover of latest Rolls-Royce armoured car book from the Tank Museum.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Some Machine Gun Corps men with a 1914 pattern Rolls-Royce armoured car sporting a Vickers MGs. Several cars sent to Ireland from Bisley just after the #EasterRising. The Lord Lt in Dublin at the time of the Rising had been part of the team designing/developing the armoured cars.

A 1914 Pattern Rolls-Royce armoured car in Collins Barracks, Dublin, May 1916 pictured with some crew men from the Machine Gun Corps.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

a good listen. Vickers MG (and Lewis guns) used during the #EasterRising The Vickers team in the attached postcard captured on film (9 minutes in on the following clip) : player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...

Vickers Machine Gun and soldiers photographed in Dublin just after the #EasterRising of April 1916

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Only know about Agnes Clerke through research on her cousin Henry Deasy and his involvement in the improvised armoured vehicles used during the #EasterRising johnny-doyle.blogspot.com/2013/02/henr...

Picture profiling the life of soldier, explorer, businessman Henry Deasy

Picture of an improvised armoured vehicle created in Dublin during the Easter Rising, April 1916. A Milnes-Daimler flat bed lorry from the Guinness brewery fitted with smoke boxes from the Inchicore railway works.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Other grandson became a Communist organiser in Ireland. Later a journalist and scriptwriter with some iconic films bearing his initials H A L www.dib.ie/biography/cr...

images of films credited to writer Henry Armitage Llewellyn Craig

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Royal Irish Constabulary pensioner Henry Armitage Llewellyn from Queen's County (now Laois) died in County Tipperary in July 1911. www.findagrave.com/memorial/846... Twin grandchildren born in County Cork in 1921 would take different paths.

Pension card and death registration for Henry Armitage Llewellyn, a Royal Irish Constabulary constable who retired in 1904 and died in 1911.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

A good read. Lots to take in and think about.

Cover of Victoria Schofield's book "Wavell. Soldier & Statesman"

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

OTD 1918. Denis "Sonny" O'Neill discharged from the British Army. Captured 25/1/18 with wound to right forearm. Repatriated by the Germans, he was admitted to the temporary King George Hospital, Stamford Street, London on 2/6/18 (originally a warehouse used by HM Stationery Office aka HMSO).

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

A building sometimes labelled as the Dublin Bread Company building but it is slightly further up Sackville St from the DBC - Cathedral Street just behind it marking the end of the #EasterRising damage. meshs-omekas.univ-lille.fr/omeka-s/s/im... A view of the building from another angle attached.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

A couple of photos linked to the faked "Battle of Tralee" - pics taken in Dalkey, Co Dublin by Auxiliaries meshs-omekas.univ-lille.fr/omeka-s/s/im... meshs-omekas.univ-lille.fr/omeka-s/s/im...

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Picked up a copy of #RogueHeroes Dudley Clarkes' book re the XIth Hussars #RougeHeroes following a conversation at #WeHaveWays re armoured cars in the inter war period 🤓 Cherrypicking here 🙂 but the part re 2 MGs in 1914 vs 40 when the XIth went to Egypt in 1934 caught the eye 🙂

Passage from book on XIth Hussars re their move to Egypt in 1934

Inside covers of Eleventh at War by Dudley Clarke

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

A collection of photos compiled for SDF member (and later President of Sudan) Ibrahim Abbood available at the UK National Archives, ref CO 1069/15. Many of the photos available on the IWM site.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

The photo on the cover of the Abyssinian Campaign appears in the Tales of the SDF by John Orlebar. Copies available to view at @bodleian.ox.ac.uk and @durham-university.bsky.social Orlebar's papers available at Durham : reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?doc...

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Brigadier Charles Gordon Stewart's photo album from his time in the SDF together with reports on various vehicles tested by the SDF available to view at the REME Museum, Lyneham by appointment. An interesting career from apprenticeship at Vickers thru RAMC, RASC, RAOC and REME plus SDF secondment

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

45 armoured cars built for the Sudan Defence Force by Miralai (Charles) Gordon Stewart, Officer Commanding the MT Depot based in Khartoum.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

What's that coming over the hill? With a bit of Rolls-Royce armoured car influence, a Sudan Defence Force armoured car with Vickers MG and Boys anti tank rifle in an open topped turret. The cars on film IWM (WPN 3) www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

#whwf25 picked up a better copy of the Abyssinian Campaigns publication. Will keep as the good copy and use the tattier version for delving in. #SudanDefenceForce #Mission101SOE #WilfredThesiger

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

#whwf25 Meant to pop back and ask more about the Light Car Patrol motor but forgot. One for next year, hopefully.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

It's come on a lot since my first introduction to Scalextric at the Britannia(?) Club in Singapore circa 1968

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

One from my small collection of WW1 postcards

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

A trip to Reading and a stop to see the Maiwand Lion. Very nice piece of public art.

Maiwand Lion memorial statue in Reading.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

17th the only unit operating Austin III cars on the Western Front. The other 24 Austins went to DunsterForce johnny-doyle.blogspot.com/2013/01/17th... Filmed with Canadian Auto Cars Sept 1918 (IWM 461d) 48s in : www.iwm.org.uk/collections/... Became 5th Armoured Car Company and then 6 RTR.

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Johnny Doyle @johnnydoyle.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Have received a list of other ACC material at Bovington including 1 and 2 ACC. Hope to check these out in September.

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