Periodically I have a look at British Champion's names to see if additional material added to the internet can help identify anyone.Richard James wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:24 pmMoving on:
LG O'Neill was from Taunton's School Southampton and described, rather vaguely, as 'about the oldest competitor' by the BCM, so was presumably born in 1918/1919.
The only two LG O'Neills I can find from those years were both Leonard G O'Neill, both born in 1918, one in Birkenhead and one in Cardiff.
AR Duff was from County High School, Leyton. Alan R Duff's birth was registered in 1922 in West Ham so I guess that's him.
I'm now confident that I can identify the 1936 British Boys' Champion, L G O'Neill. A newspaper report (Hampshire Advertiser & Southampton Times, 2 May 1936) mentioned that he wouldn't turn 18 until August 1936 and, as Richard informed us in 2010, he was a pupil at Taunton's School, Southampton.
He was Lewis Gregg O'Neill, born in Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland, on 3 August 1918. The newspaper report cited above said that he started playing chess aged nine (while he was at Bevois Town Primary School) and that he had been at Taunton's School, Southampton, from 1929.
He was active in local chess in the second half of the 1930s but thereafter I couldn't find any chess references. He appears twice in the 1939 Census, which gave me his d.o.b. During the war he had a number of letters published in regional newspapers (showing his Southampton address) exhorting people to volunteer as nurses. Thereafter I lost track of him until 1964 when he defended himself in a London magistrates' court on a minor parking charge (and got off with an absolute discharge). His occupation then was given as teacher. He died the following year in London, on 5 April 1965, aged 46.Hampshire Advertiser & Southampton Times, 2 May 1936 wrote:Although he will not be 18 until August, O Neill has passed the Higher Certificate examination of the university of London and Part One Inter-B.Sc.(Econ.). He has been in the sixth form at Taunton’s for the past two years, and this year took a leading part in the school's opera. Formerly he was in the school orchestra. Any spare time he fills in with the Southampton Sea Angling Society
BCM, June 1936, ppn 268-269, gives one of his games, plus another part-game. BCM tells us that both opponents had refused draws.
