Family/Spouse: Eric Mesney Hodder. Eric was born in 1896; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alexander + Ellen Mary Farrell. Ellen was born in 1878; died in 1951. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Royal Humane Society Silver Medal Award to George Gray Creighton.
On 22 July 1844 a woman named Thornton (22) attempted to drown herself by jumping into the canal near Naas. Dr George Creighton, from 3 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin, plunged into the canal after her and managed to get her ashore in an unconscious state. She was then taken to the police station in Naas and offered medical attention by Creighton. The rescue was brought to the attention of the Royal Humane Society by Creighton's father, John Croker Creighton.
The Society initially considered the circumstances at its committee meeting on 21 August 1844 and referred it on to its General Court. They approved the award of the Society's silver medal to Dr Creighton and this was presented to him at the Society's Annual Festival (see also The Morning Chronicle, Thursday 16 January 1845). RHS case no. 14091.
Young drew on John Creighton's letter to the Society, its more graphic contents noting how 'On the 25th [sic] of July 1844, as Dr Creighton and his brother?were fishing on the branch of the canal between Sallins and Naas. {At} about four o'clock in the afternoon, a respectably dressed young woman passed them, apparently absorbed in deep grief, and crying bitterly. In about ten minutes they were alarmed by terrible screams, but the place whence they proceeded was not in sight, as two locks of the canal at short intervals intervened. Running as swiftly as possible along the bank, they saw, just at the cut approaching a bridge, a woman and girl wringing their hands, and on the opposite side two men shouting and pointing to the water. On coming up, the woman hastily told them that a girl had thrown herself in, and that she had sunk and risen twice. At this moment the body rose to the surface of the water, and the gentlemen, from the shawl and bonnet, at once recognised the person who had shortly before passed them. Dr Creighton instantly threw off his fishing-basket and coat, and plunged in. On reaching the body, by diving after it as it was sinking, he caught her by the arm, and brought her up; but there was more convulsive vitality in her than he expected; for, on striking out for the shore, she turned around and grasped his neck, and both sank together. With great presence of mind he freed himself, and again brought her up, and, holding her by the back of the neck and pushing her before him, he swam to land. From the steepness of the bank and the canal being choked with weeds, it was with great difficulty that the wretched creature and her preserver were extricated from their peril by his brother and the men, who had by this time crossed the bridge. She was conveyed to a neighbouring cottage, where Dr Creighton had her undressed, placed in blankets, and by his medical skill and perseverance, notwithstanding his own dripping state, succeeded in restoring animation and consciousness. The girl is about twenty years of age. What lead her to this desperate act has not yet been ascertained. We understand this is the third human life saved from drowning by the courage and humanity of this young gentleman' (Young, 1872, p. 118) which record the date of the rescue as 25 July 1844.

Biographical details: The son of Dublin barrister John Croker Creighton (1810-), George Creighton was born in about 1815. He studied medicine, qualifying as a surgeon in 1839 (MRCS England, 1839). He married Marianne Harriet Maria Joanna Baillie (c.1822-1893), the daughter of Alexander Baillie (1790-1838) and his wife Marianne (n?e Wathen: 1788-1831) in 1846 and together they would have several children, including: Jessie Kerr Briscoe (c.1848-), Nina Carrie Mary Munro (c.1849-1924), and Alexander Baillie (c.1851-1924). Creighton is reported as having captured an Iceland gull (Larus Islandicus) at Kenmare in December 1854. By 1863 he was living in Jersey, at 9 Royal Crescent, St Heliers, and then went on to serve aboard the Guion's Line ship SS Wisconsin (1875). George Creighton died in Brighton on 23 July 1895 and was buried in Southsea.
(Marriage: Marylebone Registrer's District, April-June 1846, vol. 1, p. 239; Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Dublin, 1849-55.)
[E-mail from Dr Roger Willoughby rec: 12 Nov 2020]

George married Marianne Harriet Maria Joanna Baillie on 2 Apr 1846 in St. Marylebone Church, St, Paul, London, Middlesex, England. Marianne (daughter of Alexander Baillie and Marianne Wathen) was born about 1822; died on 20 Feb 1893 in Co. Cork, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

1 - In his will, Alexander Baillie of Dochfour, states that his son Alexander was procreated with the now deceased Janet Chisholm, his cousin who had lived from her early years in his family and whom he would have married if she had lived a little longer.

2 - Alexander Baillie (1790 -1838) died in Georgetown, Demerara in 1838, probably while on a visit concerned with the Philadelphia plantation there, of which he and his partner, Crawford Davison Kerr, were trustees.

Alexander married Marianne Wathen on 19 Sep 1815 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, London, Middlesex, England. Marianne was born on 13 Jul 1788 in St. Catherine, Jamaica; died in Feb 1831 in Clarges St., London, Middlesex, England; was buried on 9 Feb 1831. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]