Nationally known during the 20th century was Boone Kirkman of Seattle, WA who in the 1960s and ‘70s was a highly ranked contender for boxing’s heavyweight championship of the world. A hard hitter, Boone won a string of matches in the mid-1960s, became boxing’s Great White Hope, and was on the cover of many magazines. In 1970 he had the bad luck to encounter later heavyweight champ George Foreman in New York’s Madison Square Garden and was flattened in two rounds. Boone continued fighting until 1979 and compiled a record of 43 wins and six losses.
Wilbur Daniel Kirkman (1885-1958) was a journalist, editorial writer, newspaper library director and a major contributor to this section of the Kirkman Family History.
Born in Union, OR on Jan. 31, 1885, he was the son of John C. and Jennie Cook Kirkman. Raised in Spokane, WA, Wilbur graduated from the University of Washington and had a 41-year career in journalism. He established the Dickinson, ND Post; was a reporter for the Duluth, MN News-Tribune; an editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe Democrat, and spent 34 years with the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
Wilbur is best remembered as the founder and long-time director of the Spokesman-Review’s reference library, or as it’s known in the newspaper business, the "morgue." He retired from the Spokesman-Review in 1947 and moved to Pasadena, CA. With the assistance of several genealogists, Wilbur carried out an extensive investigation of early Maryland and North Carolina Kirkmans. He died in Pasadena on Jan. 30, 1958, one day before his 73rd birthday.
NOTABLE KIRKMANS
Alderman John Kirkman was born in Oct 1743, the son of John Kirkman of Coventry and Ann Garland, his wife. He served his apprenticeship to weaving with his father in Coventry, and then established himself in the London weaving trade about the middle of the eighteenth century. In June 1766 he married Maria Marsh, the daughter of Robert Marsh, Governor or the Bank of England. He was a silk merchant with premises in College Hill in the City of London
John Kirkman was elected Alderman of Cheap Ward on the 21 January 1768 and sworn in on the 2 February 1768.. In the elections of sheriffs of June 1780 he was elected to be one of the two Sheriffs of London and was expected to take office on the 28 September that year. He also stood as a member of parliament in the September 1780 elections. He became a City Alderman in 1768 and a freeman of the Weavers' Company at the end of the following year. He was elected Sheriff of London in 1766, and MP for the City in 1780. Unfortunately he was unable to take up his seat in parliament or to take the role of Sheriff as he died on 19 September 1780, the last day of the elections.
His funeral processed through the City to the church of St. Michael Bassishaw. The
concourse of people assembled on this occasion were the greatest ever known. Bridge
Street was lined on both sides with the Military Association, Gentlemen and on each
side the road leading to the Bridge were four ranks of coaches filled with spectators,
the windows of all the houses, house tops, ridges and every elevation that could
command the least view of this magnificent procession, were crowded with people.
Print of the Funeral Procession for Alderman John Kirkman. Click to enlarge
John is one of the Twyford Kirkmans, and had his own Coat of Arms.
On March 27, 1918 Robert and his rear-seat gunner, Capt. J.H. Hedley, ran into Rittmeister
Manfred von Richtofen's gaudily painted Flying Circle over Foucaucourt, France, and
Robert's plane was riddled by German ace Karl Gallwitz. The Brisfit crashed behind
Germans lines and Robert and Hedley were captured, uninjured, by German infantrymen.
Several von Richtofen biographies allege Kirkman and Hedley were the Red Baron's
72nd victory, but the British World War Association reports they were gunned down
by Gallwitz, a 10-victory member of the Baron's Jagdgeschwader (combat group).
Family lore holds Robert and Hedley met von Richtofen at his airdrome before they
were shipped to a POW camp. Robert and his gunner were repatriated to England on
Dec. 17, 1918. Robert subsequently became an executive for 20 years with Burma Oil.
It is reputed that he would have been knighted in 1939, his next visit, but he died
in London after a serious illness on the boat.
Robert is one of the Leicestershire Kirkmans.
Robert Kirby Kirkman was born on 25 June 1891, the last of John William’s children,
Robert also carries the maiden name of his grandmother, Mary Ann Kirby. He fought
in the Great War.
Captain Robert Kirby Kirkman of Great Britain's Royal Flying Corps was an eight-victory
World War I ace who was shot down in early 1918, survived a crash landing and became
a German prisoner of war.
Like many British fliers, Robert first served in Western Front trenches during the war's early years -- in his case with the Leicester infantry regiment. He transferred to the RFC in the summer of 1917, was posted to the 20th Squadron and piloted two-seater Bristol
fighters, an aircraft equipped with machine guns that fired fore and aft. During the last half of 1917, Robert and his rear-seat gunners shot down four Germans, then two more in January 1918 and two on March 23, 1918. After his seventh and eighth victories Robert was awarded the Military Cross and promoted to Captain and Flight Commander.
Marshall Monroe Kirkman (1842-1921) was a nationally known railroad executive, author
of historical novels, and is the only Kirkman listed in the Dictionary of American
Biography, the compendium of the nation’s best and brightest.
Born in Morgan County, IL, the son of Thomas and Catherine Sweet Kirkman and a grandson of George Kirkman, Jr., Marshall had a typically American rise to prominence. Though he had a rudimentary education, Marshall became one of the best-known American railroaders of the late 19th century.
At age 14, Marshall became a messenger for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, was repeatedly promoted, and eventually became a CNW vice president. He gained nationwide fame as an expert in railroad operation, management and financing by writing scores of railroad books, articles and encyclopaedia segments. In an astonishing late-life career change, Marshall wrote six
novels, including five volumes that detailed the meteoric rise of Alexander the Great,
the Macedonian military genius who conquered the ancient world. Marshall also is
commemorated by Kirkman, Iowa, a town 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, the state
capitol. Recently the town had 92 people, four dogs, 13 cats and a high school
football team called the Kirkman Wildcats!
Would you like to add a new Famous Kirkman story? If so, please e-mail me a brief
description. Once we have agreed the addition, I will insert it into the web site.
Thomas Penyngton Kirkman was born in 1806 in Bolton, Lancashire. From age 14, he
worked in his father’s office for 9 years. Against his father’s wishes, he went to
Trinity College Dublin in 1829 to study mathematics, philosophy, classics & science.
On returning to England in 1835 he entered the church of England and became vicar
of Southworth in Lancashire for 53 years. But his passion was mathematics. He published
over 60 substantial mathematical papers and many more minor ones. Kirkman is best
known for the Fifteen Schoolgirls Problem. He published this in the Lady's and Gentleman's
Diary of 1850.
“Fifteen young ladies of a school walk out three abreast for seven days in succession:
it is required to arrange them daily so that no two shall walk abreast
more than once.”
The solution to the Fifteen Schoolgirls Problem is not particularly hard. Nevertheless
it is his most lasting memorial.
General Sir Sydney Chevalier Kirkman
The most famous military Kirkmans of the 20th century are General Sir Sydney Chevalier
Kirkman and his brother Major General John Mather Kirkman, who played significant
roles in the British Army during World War II.
Sydney’s career was spectacular. Born July 29, 1895 in Bedford England, the son of
Judge John P. Kirkman, he served in the British army for 35 years, finally retiring
as a General 1950.
A second lieutenant in 1915, he was an artilleryman on the Western Front in France
from 1915 to 1917, served in Italy in late 1917 and early 1918, then returned
to France to participate in the
Allies’ victorious 1918 offensive. By Armistice Day he was a Major and artillery
battery commander, being thrice wounded, twice mentioned in dispatches for gallantry,
and decorated with the Military Cross.
Sydney was the finest British artilleryman of World War II, a key figure in the historic
1942 Allied victory at El Alamein, Egypt. He was a division commander in Tunisia
and Sicily in 1943, and a corps commander during the 1944 Italian campaign. Post-war
in occupied Germany; he was a deputy chief of the Imperial General Staff, a special
government investigator, and director of Britain’s Office of Civil Defence during
the early, frightening days of the Nuclear Age. Fellow officers say Sydney was a
brilliant, intellectual, inspiring commander, but a firm taskmaster. He died Nov.
5, 1982.
