Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 2 June 1894, Page 3

Notes and Events.

' ♦ — Major '• Le Caron " who has lately died held no commission in the English army. Thomas Beach is his proper name, and he was bom at Colchester in the year 1841. At the age of 19 he left England for Paris. Finding employment in a business with many American connections, ho became infected with the excitement which followed upon the outbreak of the civil war in the States. So he followed the example of others, crossed to America, and enlisted in the Northern army. His name of Le Caron was assumed for the purpose of enlistment and never afterwards discarded. In 1865 Le Carou was first brought into contact, through one O'Neill, an old com-panion-in-arms, with Fenianism and its workings. The designs of the American Fenians against Canada came to his ears, and these designs he mentioned in letters to his father in England. Mr Beach, without reference to his son, took the letters to the member for Colchester, who in turn communicated them to the Government of the day. The Home Secretary requested Mr Beach to arrange with his son for further information. Le Caron accepted the commission. In 1873 was started the new organisation of the V C, the cipher name for the " Irish United Brotherhood." In 1875 he joined this organisation, and from 1879 onwards until when he left America to give evidence before the commission he attended its meetings, for* warded home in cipher circulars, and kept successive Liberal and Conservative Governments informed of its machinations.