A stand-up row about a stand-up desk between the usually genial Irish Solicitor-General Richard Dowse, later Baron Dowse of the Irish Court of Exchequer (above right), and Mr Ayrton of the Westminster Board of Works, gives us an interesting insight into the work habits of 19th century Irish barristers.

The Solicitor-General for Ireland, deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, advised the Crown on Irish legal matters, having occupancy, for this purpose of an office at Westminster. Despite its name, it was an office invariably held by barristers.

Dowse, being accustomed to work at a stand-up desk, had requested one for this office but had been met with a request for a medical certificate that the condition of his health was so precarious as to require him to stand when transacting official business.

Such requests were rare enough at the time, and the newspapers had a field-day with the story of Ayrton’s presumed penny-pinching. The below report is from the Renfrewshire Observer of 16 September 1871:

Ayrton was excised enough by the coverage to authorise the publication of an official response in a number of newspapers, including the Birmingham Mail of 20 September 1871:

The desk seems to have been ultimately, if reluctantly provided – perhaps due to a belated realisation that, as observed by the publication ‘Zozimus,’ its cost of only a few pounds would be well expended if it kept the Solicitor-General upright!

The use of a stand-up desk by Irish barristers was common practice, both Daniel O’Connell and Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal in Ireland Gerald FitzGibbon being noted in contemporaneous accounts as working from such desks.

Whether this practice actually benefited their health is another matter – neither Dowse, O’Connell nor FitzGibbon were particularly long-lived, though there may have been other reasons for their early demise.

Image Credits: Harp Gallery and Wikipedia