Brigadier Morgan John Winthrop O'Donovan, The O'Donovan, Military Cross, MC (2 May 1893 – 28 April 1969) was a senior British Army officer who held the position of Irish nobility, O'Donovan of Clan Cahill from 1940 to his death in 1969. He was the son of Morgan William II O'Donovan and Mary Eleanor Barton, and was a descendant in the male line from Donal II O'Donovan, The O'Donovan of Clancahill, who was the last chief of his sept inaugurated in the ancient Gaels, Gaelic manner, with the White Rod, by his father-in-law MacCarthy Reagh, Prince of Carbery (barony), Carbery, circa 1584.
Career
O'Donovan attended Marlborough College and then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being commissioned in 1913. He fought in the First World War, and in 1917 was decorated with the Military Cross. Between 1919 and 1920 he fought in the Iraq Campaign and was mentioned in despatches.
From 1937 to 1940 O'Donovan commanded the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, which served in Mandatory Palestine, Palestine during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Arab revolt. He later fought in the Second World War and commanded the 125th (Lancashire Fusiliers) Brigade, 125th Infantry Brigade, part of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division. In January 1942 he took command of the 210th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home) as it was being converted into 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade.
[Joslen, p. 373.] He retired in 1944 with the rank of Brigadier (United Kingdom), brigadier. O'Donovan was then with the British Red Cross and Venerable Order of Saint John, Order of St. John in 1945.
Marriage and issue
O'Donovan married Cornelia Bagnell, daughter of William Henry Bagnell and Florence May Burrowes, and they had issue:
* Katharine Mary O'Donovan
* O'Donovan family#The O'Donovan, Morgan Gerald Daniel O'Donovan married Frances Jane, daughter of his father's old friend from the Royal Irish Fusiliers, Field Marshal Gerald Templer, Sir Gerald Templer
Notes
References
* Bernard Burke, Burke, Bernard, and Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, ''Burke's Irish Family Records''. London: Burke's Peerage Ltd. 5th edition, 1976.
* Butler, W. F. T., "The Barony of Carbery", in
Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume X, Second Series'. 1904. pp. 1–10, 73–84.
* Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, ''Carberiae Notitia''. 1686. extracts published in
Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume XII, Second Series'. 1906. pp. 142–9
* Walter Curley, Curley, Walter J.P., ''Vanishing Kingdoms: The Irish Chiefs and their Families''. Dublin: Lilliput Press. 2004.
* John O'Donovan (scholar), O'Donovan, John (ed. & tr.), ''Annals of the Four Masters, Annala Rioghachta Eireann. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1616''. 7 vols. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. 1848–51. 2nd edition, 1856
Volume VI Appendix, Pedigree of O'Donovan, pp. 2430–83.
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odonovan, Morgan John
1893 births
1969 deaths
O'Donovan family, Morgan John
Irish chiefs of the name
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
British Army personnel of World War I
Recipients of the Military Cross
Royal Irish Fusiliers officers
British Army brigadiers of World War II
British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine