Sir, - It was with some surprise and great pleasure that I read the letter from Dermot James referring to my great-grandfather, Rev Dr George Wheeler, Rector of Ballysax, Co Kildare and editor of The Irish Times from 1859 until his death in 1877.
Before he became a journalist, Dr Wheeler was widely known as the editor of a great variety of classical textbooks and of Greek and Latin grammars and at the same time was a classical "grinder", or private teacher, in Trinity College. His pupils were legion and many of them rose to great eminence.
Prof R.F.V. Heuston, in a lengthy article on Hugh McCalmont Cairns, who became Lord Chancellor and the first and only Irishman to be the head of the English judiciary, states: "Cairns's tutor was George Wheeler and Cairns never ceased to remember and acknowledge his debt to him. Wheeler had an extraordinary number of future judges among his pupils - e.g. Willes, Fitzgibbon and Pallas."
While tutoring, Wheeler became a writer for the Daily Express and contributed articles to many other newspapers and also to magazines such as All the Year Round, where his articles were greatly appreciated by Charles Dickens, who founded the periodical.
I'm sure it is with some surprise - and I hope with some pleasure - that the late reverend gentleman will have discovered that one of his great-great-grandsons is Timothy Wheeler, a pop star and member of the group Ash. - Yours, etc.,
George Wheeler, Downpatrick, Co Down.