Andrew Bonaparte-Wyse | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 November 1870 |
| Died | 1 June 1940 |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
| Spouse | Mariya de Chripunov |
| Children | 1 son, 2 daughters |
| Parent(s) | William Bonaparte-Wyse Ellen Linzee Prout |
| Relatives | SirThomas Wyse(paternal grandfather) Lucien Bonaparte(paternal great-grandfather) |
Andrew Reginald Nicholas Gerald Bonaparte-Wyse,CB,CBE (1 November 1870 – 1 June 1940) was an Irish civil servant and for many years the sole Roman Catholic in theNorthern Ireland administration to rise to the rank ofPermanent Secretary.
Andrew Reginald Nicholas Gerald Bonaparte-Wyse was born on 1 November 1870 inLimerick, Ireland. He was the grandson of SirThomas Wyse, a Member of Parliament and educational reformer, and great-grandson ofLucien Bonaparte. His father,William Bonaparte-Wyse, was a poet who wrote inProvençal, was a friend ofMistral, and became the only foreign member of the consistory of theFélibrige, the Provençal cultural association.
He was educated atDownside School. He graduated from theUniversity of London withBachelor of Arts in French, and received aMaster of Arts in Classics.
After teaching for some time nearChester, in 1895, he was appointed an inspector of national schools in Ireland. In 1897, he went to France and Belgium to assist an inquiry into the primary school curriculum. In 1905, he was appointed to the central office of the Commissioners of National Education, and a decade later was appointed junior secretary, the second-ranking officer in the department. Described by the historian Joseph Lee as a "hardlineUnionist", Bonaparte-Wyse remarked on the change of attitude in Dublin following theEaster Rising of 1916: "there is a very menacing tone among the lower classes who openly praise theSinn Féiners for their courage and bravery".[1]
Following thePartition of Ireland in 1922, Bonaparte-Wyse transferred to theNorthern Ireland Ministry of Education; he commuted toBelfast weekly from his home inBlackrock,County Dublin. In 1927, he was appointedPermanent Secretary, the only Roman Catholic at that grade in the service, and the last before the appointment ofPatrick Shea in 1969. Bonaparte-Wyse later became a civil service commissioner for Northern Ireland before retiring in 1939.[citation needed]
He was a member of theRoyal Irish Academy, aKnight of Malta, a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire, and a Companion of theOrder of the Bath.
In 1896, he married Mariya de Chripunov, the daughter of a Russian aristocrat; the couple had had three children; two daughters, Helen Victoria and Mary Alexandrine, and a son, William Lucien, who served in theFree French Navy during theSecond World War.[citation needed]
He died in a nursing home inDún Laoghaire,Ireland, in 1940, aged 69.
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