Featured The Mysterious Colonel Dunne

We found this in the pile of autographs and letters. Date unknown but probably 1st half 20thC

Straightforward? Not for us!!

Now virtually all the stuff we bought has proved to be genuine and we have no reason to suppose this isn't a genuine autograph

But we cant find a Dunne who was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society or a Dunne who was ambassador to Persia.

So has a prior owner got this all wrong?

Perhaps he was a Father Dunne from St Columbas, a Fairly Robust Girl's School.

Or Fred George Dunne, Staff College, Field Regiment of Gunnery Specialists

So who was he?

 

Here is a list of diplomats to Iran, no sergeant colonel Dunne, but it says it is incomplete:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomats_of_the_United_Kingdom_to_Iran
Maybe it is a starting point for further investigation, for instance where the date gaps in the list are.

 

Lieutenant Colonel, I suspect.

 

Not easy, this one.

 

I also see Lt. Col. and not St.

 

Are you sure there is no other interpretation of F. G. R. S. besides Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society? Just asking...

If you are sure this is his autograph, then the only part that could be incorrect is what is written below in a different hand (the part about being a British Ambassador in Persia.)

I wonder what the writing in the other language says? Is it Farsi? (Persian?) Whatever language it is, it appears to be written in the same pen as the first and second line.

Is this a piece of paper or a card? Nothing else on it?

 

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society is the only acronym I know that fits but I did suggest some tongue in cheek alternatives!

Not sure of language but it seems to tie in with the middle eastern attribution.

Thing is I cant find any record of a (lieutenant?) colonel Dunne that even vaguely fits.

Just paper, no other clues

 

Maybe Dunne was an aide of some sort rather then the ambassador or other principal representative. I looked into the possibility that the writing below was 'F G Dunne' transliterated into Arabic letters, since Farsi is written using them, but couldn't make a case for it to myself. You can play with it here.

 

Of course. My reading is terrible these days (as is my thinking). Flu since december, on top of the usual brain damage, etc.

 

Thanks Davey!

 

Thanks Bronwen, he could well have been an aide, but I can't find any Dunne that might match. Usually one would expect a gazette entry on his promotion, or a reference in some learned tome. In this case, nothing that I can find.

It is unusual for someone to leave no discernible trail

 

In my own research, sometimes I have to take myself in hand & remember that not everything is to be found on the Internet, it just feels like it. And many times the answer to a question has come along, not when I'm feverishly searching for it, but when I'm feverishly looking for something else altogether.

 

Hope you feel better very soon.

 

I wonder if this is badly written. FRCS - Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. I agree it is Lt. Col. The bit about ambassador is in a different and later hand.

 

@Any Jewelry, hoping you feel better soon......Blessings!
Sue

 

Not that it's likely to bring any more results, but is it possible the signature, could read F.G. Dume instead of what's written below for a name????

 

(not contagious this way)

 

Hi, I'll try to get back to this thread but my wife is still in stroke ward (another attack Sunday morning) BUT with an interesting (and hopeful) potential diagnosis. I'm all over the place emotionally, cant concentrate much atm.