‘the young man who raced trains.’
On an untarred, unpaved earthen country road known as the Glen Road, Grenagh, running beneath the embankment parallel to the railway above, passengers on the main-line steam trains on their journey to Cork City, could very often see a young man running as fast as he could from his home at nearby Rockhill trying to keep pace with the trains over 440-yard sections to the nearby station of Rathduff. Invariably, the trains got to the station before he did but with each run, he was striving to increase his speed. He also did a similar return run between Rathduff Station and his home at Rockhill House where he also trained in the fields of the family farm. Later when he attended Queen’s College (University College Cork), he would still run to catch his train from Rathduff to the Glanmire Road Station (Kent Station) in the city, and then walk speedily from there to the University. He found a niche in local folklore as ‘the young man who raced trains.’ This type of training in his early years was to help bring him huge local, national and international glory and acclaim over his sporting career which began in the early 1880s during his college years in Cork. The Cork Examiner of 4th May 1885 reported that at the very first meet of the Blarney Sports, T.M. Donovan of Queen’s College Cork Athletic Club (Q.C.C.A.C.) ‘won the hundred yards well.’
Such was his ability that he won the Queens College All-Round Championship in 1887 and again in 1889. He stood 6ft 3ins (190.5cms) tall, weighed slightly over 14 st. (89 kgs) and had a chest measurement of 45 ins (114.3cms) and was often described “as a giant in stature.” As a world champion he was one of the more famous amateur athletes to have attended Queen’s College.
His name was Thomas Matthew Donovan, born in 1863, the eldest of eight children, four boys and four girls, to Mathias Donovan (1826-1895) and Mary McNamara (1841-1900) of Rockhill House, Grenagh, County Cork, Ireland.
He left university in Cork in 1889 with a degree in medicine and headed to Edinburgh University, Scotland where he further completed his medical studies. Before he left Cork for Edinburgh, he won the 1890 Quarter-mile Championship of Ireland and later in the season he also won the Irish All-Round Championship at Ballsbridge in Dublin. Arriving in Edinburgh, he joined the Edinburgh University College Athletic Club (E.U.C.A.C.) and represented them from 1890 to 1892 in 120yds hurdles, 440yds flat, long-jump and hammer throw. He went on to win the Scottish Universities All-Round Championship in 1890,1891 and in 1892 at Edinburgh Sports, being awarded the Australasian Cup for best all-round champion. He was deemed worthy to keep it having won it for three years in succession.
Apart from his running, he excelled at long-jump, high-jump, hurdles, pole-vault, shot-put, boxing, hammer-throwing and 56 lb weight. He represented Queens College (University College Cork), Edinburgh University, Munster and Ireland playing rugby.
Playing for Queens College, he was quite impressive as a rugby player, being picked a number of times for Munster and going on to play on the Irish Rugby Team, earning his first International Cap, which lost to Scotland in the 1889 Home Nations Championship by a score of one drop-goal to nil at Ormeau, Belfast, on 16th February 1889. (IRFU Team History Archive 1889)
Australian Career
Thomas, on completion of his medical education, being impressively registered as Licenced Royal College Physicians Edinburgh 1896; Licenced by Royal College Surgeons Edinburgh 1896; Licenced Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow 1896 (Queens College, Cork R.C.S. and Minto House Edinburgh), eventually applied for and was appointed as Ships Surgeon working for the P&O Line on board the RMS Moldavia for about three years at a salary of £7-10s per month. His duties on board were as a doctor, who attended all passengers and crew and as a health inspector who had to visit all parts of the ship, ensuring everything was clean and disinfected and all food was prepared and cooked properly. He had to check all steerage passengers for infectious diseases on boarding. If any were found they were to be returned to the quayside and not allowed to sail. First and second-class passengers were not checked.
When Moldavia arrived in Sydney in late November 1904, he must have looked impressive in his officer’s uniform as he stepped down to the quayside and a number of newspapers picked up on him.
RMS Moldavia was a passenger steam-ship of 9,500 tons and 160 metres long, owned by the P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) line, which was launched in March 1903 and travelled the England to Australia route via the Suez Canal. It was the first of two passenger ships bearing the name ‘Moldavia’. The British Admiralty converted it to an armed merchant cruiser, during the First world War, in 1915. It was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 56 American soldiers by U-boat UB-57, under command of highly decorated German Navel Oberleutnant zur See Johannes Lohs, on 23rd May 1918 in the English Channel. Lohs lost his own life, his entire crew and UB-57 when they appear to have struck a mine near the Straits of Dover on 14th August 1918. (P&O Heritage Ship Fact File)
The above extract was taken from a much larger article written by Brian Gabriel, and printed in Edition No 13 ‘Old Blarney’ Journal. ‘Old Blarney’ back issues are still available on www.blarneyhistory.ie