Military Judge 

The Defence Amendment Act 2007 made provision for the appointment of three Legal officers to the Defence Forces; The Court-Martial Administrator, The Director of Military Prosecutions and The Military Judge. The latter position only has a special collar badge, which is worn by the current incumbent Colonel Anthony McCourt. It is slightly larger than current collar badges and is made in anodised aluminium. The office of Military Judge also has one other unique feature in that the collar badge is also worn in gold bullion embroidery on the dress uniform. Along with Generals and the Chaplains these are the only collar badges permitted on the dress uniforms. The badge was introduced in late 2008, early 2009. The insignia shows the scales of justice with a sword hilt balance, with the words JUSTITIA on a torc.

 Ordnance Explosive Officer 

Three insignia are authorised from 2009, in gilt metal for officers and silver plated for other ranks for wear on the service dress, and a black embroidered on green pattern for combat uniforms. The badge is to be worn above the ribbon bar over the left breast pocket. The design shows a bomb superimposed on two crossed swords surrounded by a spray of leaves. Both badges have pin and clip fixings.

Part 3 of 3 Category 12: Members and officials of Local Authorities  

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Adams	Thompson Buchanan		Secretary, Londonderry CC
Alexander	Andrew		Superintendent of Rates, Belfast County Borough
Archer	John	BA	Town Solicitor, Belfast County Borough
Arthurs	James		Chairman, Keady UDC
Bailie	William James		Chairman, Newtownards Union
Baillie	George	JP	Chairman, Moira RDC
Barbour	John Doherty		Chairman, Lisburn UDC
Barr	William		Chairman, Tanderagee UDC
Bell	David		Clerk, Holywood UDC
Bell	William Andrew		Chairman, Belfast RDC
Bell	William Robert	MBE	Clerk, Newry Union
Benson	David		Chairman, Lisburn RDC
Black	Francis	JP	Chairman, Ballycastle RDC

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Boyd	John	JP	Chairman, Larne RDC
Boyle	George		Chairman, Strabane UDC
Brush	George Howard	Major	Commissioner, Donaghadee UDC
Brown	Samuel		Chairman, Hillsborough RDC
Burkitt	James Parsons	BE	County Surveyor, Co Fermanagh
Byrne	Edward	JP	Chairman, Newry No. 1 RDC
Calvert	James		Clerk, Lurgan Union
Calvert	William		Clerk, Armagh Union
Christie	Daniel Hall	Alderman	Chairman, Coleraine BC
Clark	James Lawthor	MBE	Clerk, Antrim Union
Clarke	Francis Armstrong		Chairman, Irvinestown Union
Clarke	John		Chairman, Ballycastle UDC
Cleland	John	JP	Chairman, Downpatrick RDC
Coffey	John		Chairman, Lisnashea Union
Connolly	Francis Philip		Chairman, Warrenpoint UDC
Corbett	Samuel Smith		Chairman, Portadown UDC
Corner	William James		Clerk, Moira RDC
Cousley	Robert	JP	Chairman, Magherafelt RDC
Crawford	James	JP	Chairman, Larne Union
Crawford	James		Chairman, Londonderry RDC
Crawford	Vincent	BA	Clerk, Warrenpoint UDC
Crockett	James Sproule		Chairman, Castlederg RDC
Cronin	William Montgomery		Clerk, Newry UDC

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Cunningham	James Aloysius	Doctor	Chairman, Omagh UDC
Cunningham	William Irwin	MBE	Clerk, Portrush UDC
Curran	Daniel		Clerk, Newcastle UDC
Davison	William Robert	Doctor	Medical Officer, Ballymena Union
Dickson	James Hill	Senator, JP	Chairman, Newtownards RDC
Dickson	Robert John		Secretary, Down CC
Donnell	John Campbell McClelland		City Accountant, Londonderry Corporation
Duff	Hugh	JP	Chairman, Cookstown RDC
Duffy	Samuel John	JP	Chairman, Dromore UDC
Dunlop	John James Woodhouse		Chairman, Armagh Union
Erskine	Jackson Robinson	JP	Chairman, Dungannon Union
Fleming	John Wilson		Clerk, Cookstown UDC
Gamble	James Fulton	MP, JP	Chairman, Castlederg Union
Glasgow	John	JP	Chairman, Cookstown UDC
Gracey	John George		Chairman, Lurgan RDC
Gray	Thomas		Chairman, Castlereagh RDC
Halfpenny	William John		Chairman, Downpatrick Union
Hall	Robert	Doctor	Medical Officer, Belfast Union
Harden	James Edward	Major, DL, JP	Chairman, Tanderagee RDC
Hardy	Thomas Henry	JP	Chairman, Armagh RDC
Harris	William John		Chairman, Banbridge Union

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Hayes	Alexander		Chairman, Ballymoney Union
Henderson	Robert		Chairman, Ballyclare UDC
Henry	David	JP	Chairman, Ballymena UDC
Henry	Samuel Reid		Chairman, Portstewart UDC
Herdman	Emerson Crawford	Major, Sir, KBE	Chairman, Strabane Union
Hezlett	Hugh	JP	Chairman, Coleraine RDC
Higgins	John Alphonsus		Clerk, Magherafelt Union
Hill	Charles Robert		Secretary, Tyrone CC
Hunter	John		Chairman, Limavady UDC
Ireland	James		Chairman, Lisburn Union
Irwin	Albert James	BA	Chairman, Londonderry Union
Jackson	Robert George		Clerk, Belfast RDC
Jeffers	John	JP	Chairman, Newry No. 2 RDC
Johnston	John		Chairman, Omagh Union
Johnston	Joseph		Chairman, Lisnaskea RDC
Kelly	John Edmund		Chairman, Newcastle UDC
Kennedy	William John		Chairman, Newcastle UDC
Leathem	James		Chairman, Irvinestown RDC
Legg	William Bernard	JP	Chairman, Larne UDC
Lowry-Corry	Armar	The Earl of Belmore, DL	Chairman, Enniskillen RDC
Lowry-Corry	Cecil	The Honorable, JP	Chairman, Enniskillen Union

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
McClelland	William James	JP	Chairman, Omagh RDC
McConnell	Alexander		Chairman, Antrim RDC
McConnell	Edgar	BE, MInstCE	County Surveyor, Armagh
McConville	Hugh John	DL, JP	Chairman, Newry UDC
McCrea	John Frederick		Clerk, Clogher UDC
McCready	Anastasia (Miss)	JP	Chairman, Belfast Union
McCullough	William		Chairman, Carrickfergus UDC
McGrady	Edward Kevin		Chairman, Downpatrick UDC
McGovern	Peter		Chairman, Kilkeel Union
McGuffin	William		Clerk, Dungannon Union
McKinstry	John		Chairman, Banbridge UDC
McKinstry	John		Deputy Town Clerk, Belfast County Borough
McMillan	Samuel		Chairman, Ballymena RDC
McMinn	William James		Chairman, Dungannon RDC
Macafee	Robert		Chairman, Ballymoney UDC
Macauley	Andrew	JP	Chairman, Ballycastle Union
Malcolm	Herbert Cecil		Chairman, Lurgan UDC
Malcolm	Walter		Chairman, Bangor BC
Meyer	Robert	Sir (Kt)	Town Clerk, Belfast County Borough
Millar	Alexander	CBE	Secretary, Antrim CC
Miller	Francis Henry	Sir (Kt)	Town Clerk, Londonderry County Borough
Mooney	Patrick Joseph		Chairman, Kilkeel RDC
Neill	Francis Seymour		Chairman, Whitehead UDC

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Nelson	Thomas		Clerk, Larne Union
Nolan	Michael James	Doctor, JP	Resident Medical Superintendent, Down Mental Hospital
O’Hara	Henry		Clerk, Ballymena UDC
Paul	Oliver	JP	Chairman, Coleraine Union
Pepper	George Edmund Blakely		Chairman, Portrush UDC
Phillips	William Lawson		Deputy Town Clerk, Londonderry
Perry	Alexander Wilson		Clerk, Londonderry Union
Pollock	John Wycliffe		Clerk of Lurgan Urban District
Proctor	Robert		Chairman, Enniskillen UDC
Redmond	Samuel Alexander	JP	Chairman, Banbridge RDC
Reid	Thomas Ebenezer	MBE	Secretary, Armagh CC
Ritchie	Arthur William Gibbon		Clerk, Enniskillen UDC
Scott	Robert Alexander		Clerk, Castlederg Union
Simms	William Hanna		Chairman, Newtownards UDC
Smith	James Dunlop	MInstCE, MInstGasE, JP	Gas Manager, Belfast County Borough
Stevenson	Robert		Chairman, Strabane RDC
Stockdale	George Alfred		Chairman, Clogher Union
Thompson	George		Chairman, Antrim Union
Thornberry	William Henry Nassau		Chairman, Dungannon UDC
Torrens	Samuel		Chairman, Ballymoney RDC

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Turner	William George	The Right Honorable, Sir, DL, JP, PC	Deputy Lord Mayor, Belfast
Watson	Samuel		Chairman, Ballymena Union
Watson	Samuel James	JP	Chairman, Lurgan Union
Wilkin	James Gilbert	BE	County Surveyor, Co Down
Woods	John		Chairman, Holywood UDC

 Category 12: Local dignitaries and persons of distinction 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Armstrong	Henry Bruce Wright	Right Hon.	HM Lieutenant for Co Armagh
Armstrong	Margaret	Mrs	Wife of HM Lieutenant for Co Armagh
Blane	James	JP	Chairman of Down CC
Collum	John Ernest Francis	JP	HM Lieutenant for Co Fermanagh
Collum	Rose	Mrs	Wife of HM Lieutenant for Co Fermanagh
Deane	Hector Charles Chatterton		High Sheriff for Co Armagh
Dixon	Edith Stewart	Lady, DBE	Wife of HM Lieutenant for the County of Belfast City
Dixon	Thomas James	Right Hon., Sir, Bart	HM Lieutenant for the County of Belfast City

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Ferguson	Godfrey William	JP	High Sheriff of Co Antrim
Howard	Robert James	Lieut-Colonel	Chairman of Tyrone CC
Knox-Browne	Mervyn William Charles Nesbitt		High Sheriff of Co Tyrone
Lenox-Conyngham	William Lowry		High Sheriff of Co Londonderry
McCausland	Maurice	Right Hon., JP	HM Lieutenant for Co Londonderry
McCausland	Eileen	Mrs	Wife of HM Lieutenant for Co Londonderry
McCorkell	Dudley Evelyn Bruce	Sir, MBE, JP, DL	Mayor of Londonderry
McCullagh	Crawford	Sir	Lord Mayor of Belfast
McCullagh	Margaret Craig	Lady, CBE	Lady Mayoress of Belfast
McFarland	Basil Alexander Talbot	Bart	High Sheriff of Londonderry City
Masserene & Ferrard	Algernon William John Clotworthy Skeffington	Lieut-Colonel, the Righ Hon. Viscount, DSO	HM Lieutenant of co Antrim
Masserene & Ferrard	Jean Barbara	The Viscountess	Wife of HM Lieutenant for Co Antrim
Montgomery	Thomas Archibald	DL	Chairman of Armagh CC
Moore	Maxwell Scott	JP	HM Lieutenant for Londonderry City
Moore	Ida	Mrs	Wife of HM Lieutenant for Londonderry City
Patrick	John	Lieut-Colonel, DL, JP	Chairman of Antrim CC

 

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation & distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Smyth	David Wilson	DL	High Sheriff of Co Down
Teele	William Beaconsfield	Captain, MC	High Sheriff of Co Fermanagh
Williamson	James Dunlop	MD, DL, JP	High Sheriff of Belfast City

 Category 13: Members of Nursing Services  

Surname	Christian names	Office
Airey	Flores Hilda (Miss)	Lady Superintendent, Belfast Infirmary, Lisburn Road, Belfast
Allen	Mary Jane Howard (Miss)	Matron, Magherafelt Union, Co Londonderry
Beaton	Margaret Anderson (Miss)	Inspector, Northern Ireland Area of Queen’s Institute of District Nursing, Scottish Temperance Buildings, Room 44, 16 Donegall Square South, Belfast
Belford	Eva Elizabeth (Miss)	Matron, Armagh County Infirmary
Burnside	Ethel Margaret (Miss)	Matron, UVF Hospital, Craigavon, Stranstown, Belfast
Caughey	Margaret (Miss)	Matron, Londonderry Mental Hospital
Crawford	Margaret Mary (Miss)	Matron, Dalriada Hospital, Ballycastle
Early	Margaret (Miss)	Matron, Mater Infirmorum Hospital, Crumlin Road, Belfast
Gawley	Isabella Victoria (Miss)	Matron, Londonderry County Infirmary
Hall	Martha (Miss)	Matron, Belfast Mental Hospital, Purdysburn, Belfast
McComb	Elizabeth (Miss)	A member of the Joint Nursing and Midwives’ Council. Member of the Belfast Corporation Maternity and Child Welfare Committee, the Belfast Women’s Advisory Committee, and the Belfast Tuberculosis Committee, 150 Cliftonpark Avenue, Belfast

 

Surname	Christian names	Office
Hastings	Eva Carmichael (Miss)	Matron, Massereene Hospital, Antrim
Jelly	Mabel (Miss)	Matron, Strabane District Hospital
Lennox	Elizabeth (Miss)	Matron, Waveney Hospital, Ballymena
McFadden	Margaret Wilhelmina (Miss)	Matron, Down County infirmary, Downpatrick, Co Down
Morgan	Sarah	Matron, Mourne District Hospital, Kilkeel, Co Down
Mussen	Anne Elizabeth (Miss)	Matron, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
Robb	Amy (Miss)	Matron, Tyrone & Fermanagh Joint Mental Hospital, Omagh
Snodgrass	Jean Elizabeth (Miss)	Matron, Tyrone County Infirmary, Omagh
Wilson	Amelia Evangeline (Miss)	Matron, Co Antrim Infirmary, Lisburn

 Category 14: Members of Fire Brigades  

Surname	Christian names	Titles, designation distinctions	Appointment, rank, & name of department
Craig	Samuel	Fireman	Fire Brigade, Londonderry
Gaylor	Peter Guillen	Chief Superintendent	Fire Brigade, Londonderry
Nelson	David	Fireman	Fire Brigade, Belfast
O’Neill	John	Station Officer	Fire Brigade, Belfast
Smith	John	Chief Officer	Fire Brigade, Belfast

  Acknowledgements: The above material is crown copyright and is here reproduced with the permission of The National Archives.Address for correspondence: PO Box 278, Wallingford, OX10 1AU, England. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

On Saturday August 28^th a memorial garden to those killed on August 26^th 1940,  when the small Irish village of Campile, Co. Wexford, was bombed by a lone German Heinkel aircraft which dropped 4 bombs over the Shelbourne Co-op and Creamery and destroyed it in  seconds, was formally opened. The 1940 bombing resulted in 3 deaths – sisters Mary Ellen Kent aged 30, Kitty Kent, aged 30, and restaurant worker Kathleen Hurley aged 27. Eyewitnesses later said that they saw two German aircraft flying over Carnsore Point at the southern tip of County Wexford before they turned west and followed the main Waterford / Rosslare railway line to Campile. One aircraft diverted to Ambrosetown while the other headed for Campile where just before 2 p.m. it dropped 4 bombs on the village.  At the time the bombs fell about 85 people were working in the Co-op but most had left the restaurant following lunch.  However restaurant manager Mary Ellen Kent, assistant Kathleen Hurley and drapery worker Kitty Kent  were not so lucky and their bodies were later recovered from the rubble. 

The bombing of Campile was subsequently raised by the Irish chargé d’affaires in Berlin with the German authorities who admitted liability in October with the Irish Department of External Affairs, the modern day Department of Foreign Affiars, issuing a statement noting that the German government  “ because of the their desire to act in the spirit of their friendly relations with Ireland, are prepared to admit the possibility that bombs had been dropped by a German aircraft, the pilot of which had lost his way owing to bad visibility. The statement added that the German foreign office had expressed regret for the incident, offered sincere sympathy to those who suffered and expressed its willingness to pay compensation for the losses and damage sustained.  Compensation for this attack was included in a post war settlement agreed in 1957 between the Irish and German governments concerning war damage to Irish territory and property by the Luftwaffe on several occasions. 

On Saturday August 28^th 2010 over 500 people, including relatives of the 3 victims, and 5 survivors from that fateful day, attended a special ceremony in Campile  to mark the 70^th anniversary of this event  at which a memorial garden  on the site of where the creamery formerly stood was opened by Sean Connick, T.D. and Minister for State,  at which German ambassador to Ireland, Mr. Brusso von Alvensleben was present. The ceremony was organised by a group from the Campile Historical Society and the Campile Development Committee which formed the Campile Memorial Group which then proceeded to provide the Memorial Garden and organise the Memorial Day.  The group commissioned Ciaran O’Brien, a County Wexford sculptor, to design and produce the artwork for the garden  from Breccia  Medicia marble and were carved in situ in Cararra, Italy, and was assisted by a German sculptor Anika Untermann. 

Ambassador von Alvesleben said that he hoped that the memorial sculptures would recall the horrors of war and preserved the memory of the 3 women who died that day. 

Various theories circulated at the time of the bombing as to why the creamery was attacked by the German including one that butter boxes from it has been found by the Germans on the beaches of Dunkirk and was bombed in retaliation for supplying the Allied armies. But according to Campile historian John Flynn  whose book ‘Campile Bombing, August 1940 ‘ will be published shortly, the creamery was supplying butter to the British market and the bombing was a warning to the Irish government that if it was neural it should not be supplying goods to wartime Britain and was to cease this trade immediately.

 On Saturday 3^rd September 2011 newly restored Rolls Royce armoured car  Sliabh na mBan  was unveiled at  the Curragh Camp. Co. Kildare following the annual Mass and wreath laying ceremonies in honour of deceased members of the Defence Forces’ Cavalry Corps during  the annual Cavalry Corps Day. 

ARR2 is the third of one hundred 1920 Pattern or Whippet Rolls Royce armoured cars ordered by the British Army and fitted with Royal Ordnance Factory armoured bodies. Delivered in November 1920 it was originally destined for service in Mesopotamia but was diverted to Ireland and saw service during the  (1919 – 1920) War of Independence / Anglo-Irish War.  In the early months of 1922 the Provisional Government acquired 13 of these vehicles from the departing British forces  and were allocated unofficial names. Sliabh na mBan  was called Slievenamon  and first saw action  at the outbreak  of the Civil War ( 1922 – 1923)  when  it took part in operations to clear Republicans  from buildings  in O’Connell Street, Dublin. When fleet numbering was introduced, it was designated ARR2. 

Allocated in mid-August 1922 to General Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, it was part of the convoy ambushed by Republicans at Béal na Bláth  in West Cork on August 22^nd 1922  during which Michael Collins  received a fatal bullet  head wound. Ironically Collins had refused to shelter in this vehicle which was then used to evacuate his body from the ambush site. 

In December 1922 the vehicle was stolen by Republicans  with the help of a driver  and used by Republicans  in attacks on a number of installations  and then hidden by them under straw on a farm until  found by National Army troops acting on a tip off. During the 1930’s ARR2 and the other Rolls Royce armoured cars  were   based  at the Curragh  and served with the 1^st  Armoured Squadron  until replaced during 1937-38 by eight Swedish Landsw

erk armoured cars. The outbreak of World War 2 (The Emergency) saw these vehicles recalled to service with various units until 1945. Twelve were sold off in the 1950’s without their armoured bodies but due to the foresight of Paddy Lynch, foreman of the Cavalry Corps workshops, who has set them up in 1924,  had  previously  driven these armoured cars,   and Michael Collins around Dublin in a Crossley Tender, ARR2  was retained  in the  workshops under the heading of Scrap  although in working order  and polished weekly  by a workshop apprentice. 

At some stage the vehicle was renamed Sliabh na mBan and in a strange quirk of fate appeared in the 1959 film ‘Shake Hands with the Devil’, set during the Irish War of Independence, and  starring James Cagney and Don Murray and a host of  British  support and character actors, produced by retired General Emmet Dalton  who had been beside  Michael Collins when he died at  Béal na Bláth.   

In 1978 this armoured car recreated its original role at Béal na Bláth   for the RTE semi-documentary ‘In the Shadow of  Béal na Bláth’ driven appropriately by Pat Lynch, son of Paddy Lynch.  

At the present time  Sliabh na mBan is one of about 15 preserved vehicles held and maintained by the Cavalry Corps. Speech by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny T.D., at Cavalry Corps Day, Defence Forces Training Centre, Curragh Camp on Saturday, 3 September 2011 at 10.45 a.m. 

“On the final day of his life, as he emerged from the Eldon Hotel in Skibbereen, Michael Collins was approached by the writer Edith Somerville, who admonished him... " keep your armoured cars away from my haven, I can't bear to see my little island destroyed with those monstrosities".  As the only armoured car in Collins' convoy that day, it was the Sliabh na mBan, now standing before us resplendent 89 years later, which was the target of Somerville's ire.  

A Aire Cosanta; Ceann Foirne Óglaigh na hÉireann; Oifigí, ONC agus Trúipéir ón Cór Marcra, pearsanra míleata scortha; a dhaoine uaisle.   

Tá áthas orm a bheith I bhur dteannta inniu chun an carr armúrtha athchóirithe Sliabh na mBan a sheoladh. 

It is my great pleasure to be present here on Cavalry Day to celebrate our country's proud military tradition, which is so comprehensively recalled in the beautifully restored armoured Rolls Royce car, Sliabh na mBan.  It is just under a fortnight since the 89^th Anniversary of the death of General Michael Collins at Béal na mBláth, on the 22^nd of August 1922. At that time, while the country was being torn apart by a bitter civil war, Michael Collins, as Commander in Chief of the National Army, was visiting his troops in West Cork - and Sliabh na mBan formed an integral part of his 4-vehicle convoy. Michael Collins, who famously cycled around Dublin in plain view of the British administration when Director of Intelligence, was shot in the open at Béal na mBláth while returning fire, showing his characteristic courage and disregard for his own safety. It is a matter of tragic irony that Collins, who refused to take shelter in the Sliabh na mBan, was evacuated from the ambush site in this very car, having been mortally wounded moments earlier. And thus, in the loss of one of our greatest patriots and leaders, Sliabh na mBan was a silent witness. 

Sliabh na mBan, therefore, takes us right back to the turbulent foundations of our Nation and reminds us, in no small way, of the price that was paid for that Independence. It stands as a tribute to the proud heritage of our Defence Forces, Óglaigh na hÉireann, who fought for "the right of the Irish people to be masters in our own country, to decide for ourselves the way in which we wish to live and the system by which we wish to be governed. 

The tradition of selfless service to the State established by the very first Commander-in-Chief, lives on in the ranks of Óglaigh na hÉireann today. The conduct and bearing of our Defence Forces earlier this year, on the occasion of the visits of Queen Elizabeth II and President Obama, brought home to every citizen of this country how professional, capable and disciplined our Defence Force is. I was struck by the dignity of the various ceremonial occasions and the pride with which the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps have maintained their military heritage. Indeed it was my great pleasure to acknowledge the outstanding performance of our Defence Forces during those important visits by awarding Gradam An Taoisigh to the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann.  

When I look out and compare the state-of-the-art Mowags we have here today with our earliest armoured car, I am reminded that Óglaigh na hÉireann has come a long way in its almost 100-year history.  

We truly have a world class Defence Force which makes a vital contribution to the daily lives of our citizens at home, and brings great honour and influence to the State through its contribution to International Peace and Security on overseas missions. Nevertheless, our Defence Force has never lost sight of its origins in the Irish Volunteers and the fundamental role the organisation played in the self determination of the Irish people. Each member of Óglaigh na hÉireann to this day proudly bears the cap badge originally designed for the Volunteers in 1913, while other aspects of the uniform preserve the link between military tradition and loyal service to the State. My predecessor and a man sorely missed from Irish life, the late Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, addressed the Junior Command and Staff course at the Military College earlier this year. In his speech to those future military commanders, Dr. Fitzgerald remarked that despite the fact that so many of the traditional pillars of Irish society had weakened in recent years, the Defence Forces remained loyal to the core values of honour, loyalty and Service to the State - a Service that can be traced back through every major crisis on this island since the birth of our Nation. 

Sliabh na mBan is the most historic and evocative vehicle in the State today. It speaks to us through the ages and tells us where we are and how we got here. It has the unique distinction of having served in three wars and with three separate armies: Firstly, with the British Army from 1920 against the Irish Republican Army in the War of Independence. Secondly, with the National Army, later the Defence Forces, until after the Emergency in 1946, and in between times with the Anti-Treaty forces for a brief period during the Civil War.  

Those many soldiers of every hue, who enjoyed the protection of this historic vehicle, would have echoed Polonius -   

            Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
            Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.
       

Those hoops of steel are the very fabric and substance of Sliabh na mBan. 

Originally destined for service with the British in Mesopotamia, the first 1920 pattern armoured Rolls Royce cars - or ARRs - including Sliabh na mBan, were diverted for service in Ireland with the British Army. After Independence in 1922, thirteen of the Rolls Royce cars were purchased by the Free State and helped provide the National Army with the means to bring the Civil War to an end.  

It is a testament to the dedication and ingenuity of the Cavalry Corps that Sliabh na mBan and the other ARRs were maintained in working order through the lean years of the 1930s and the 1940s, serving in one of the three armoured car squadrons during the Emergency, when this country faced the possibility of invasion. Following the War, the cars had become largely obsolete and were in danger of being scrapped in those frugal times. Once again, the dedicated military and civilian personnel at the cavalry Workshops, including notably the Lynch family, ensured the survival of Sliabh na mBan, often through the resourceful interchanging of parts that had by then become impossible to procure. The Government had the foresight to preserve this car when the other ARRs were auctioned in 1954 and it has been a feature of State occasions, military ceremonies and heritage displays ever since. I want to thank in particular the staff of the Combined Vehicle Base Workshops, as well as Mr. James Black and his team of craftsmen who have so faithfully restored Sliabh na mBan to its present magnificent condition.  

I would like to thank the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General McCann for his kind invitation to me to join you here on this important occasion, and to wish the Cavalry Corps and the wider Defence Forces continued success in your vital work on behalf of the State, at home and overseas.  

As I look at the Sliabh na mBan before us here today, restored to its immaculate best, it may be an inanimate object, yet it speaks - it shouts: resistance, endurance, integrity, struggle, victory. I have no doubt that Edith Somerville would approve. “

My mother had never known her father. His faded photograph in British Army uniform sat on our mantelpiece beside a large bronze medallion inscribed ‘He died for honour and for valour’. Granny seldom spoke about her husband and his life which even with the fertile imagination of a grandson seeking a mark bravery or distinction at war, remained something of a mystery.

A few years ago staying with friends in Kew in London I visited the National Archives there. I knew his regiment and the date of his death, the 1st of November 1918, and I was soon holding the Service record of Captain Henry Burke Close of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. This comprised of three yellowed document folders.

The first folder, to my surprise, told the story of a nineteen year old man from Dun Laoghaire who had joined the Army in England in 1897 as a gunner and remained there until 1911. Henrys father was barrister living in Dublin, and we can only imagine what family upheaval caused him to leave home and enlist at such an early age. He emigrated briefly to Canada, returning to Dublin in 1914 when he met my grandmother. Three weeks after a marriage, unsupported by his family, he received a wartime commission as a Lieutenant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and in early 1916 Henry was sent to the front at Arras in Flanders.

The second folder goes on to record Henry being invalided from the trenches to a Dublin hospital with gastroenteritis, a not uncommon and serious illness at the time. Documents in terse longhand, record over a period medical board assessments of Henry as unfit for service. As his health improved he was assigned to training duties at Mullingar Barracks where my mother was born in 1917. The following year, now deemed fit again for active service; he again left Dublin for the front. He suffered a heart attack while embarking on a troopship and was returned to Dublin where he died at Leopardstown Hospital, the story goes, while playing poker.

The third folder contained letters exchanged between my grandmother, seeking a pension and the War Office in London. There is a sharp contrast between her pleading in tiny handwriting on both sides of small sheets of writing paper, seeking funds for food, clothing and medicines for her two daughters and the dispassionate adjudication of War Office officials. They took the view that her husband had died as a result of illness and not on active service and that she was not as a result entitled to a war widow’s pension.

Yeat’s ‘terrible beauty’ had been born and the world was changing.  Henrys widow, now living with her two daughters in Dun Laoghaire without support from her husband’s family was now an orphan, both distanced by the British War Office and unrecognised by the Irish Free State.

By Grannies account it was only with the timely and effective intervention in late 1919 of Emmet Dalton, a friend of Henrys and a former officer in the British army was a modest pension secured. Three years later Dalton, on a summer’s day in Beal Na Blath in 1922 was to hold the dying Michael Collins in his Arms and later became a General in the Free State Army.

Henrys story, which came to life for me looking through the yellowed folders in Kew is one of thousands of Irishmen lost in the rapidly changing sands of that time. I now have some understanding as to  why, in her fifty four years as his widow, my grandmother left to our imagination the story of the man in the uniform on the mantelpiece. 

For a dead English soldier it really doesn't matter whether the foreign field in which you finally rest is in Flanders or in Dublin. At least it shouldn't. But scattered across Dublin cemeteries lie the forgotten remains of the young men of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were slaughtered on Dublin's Streets during the 1916 Easter Rising. Their story, like their scruffy and neglected graves, remains largely forgotten in the long and embarrassed history of the English in Ireland.

They were volunteers, recruited from the towns and villages of Nottinghamshire. From Newark and Bingham from Huthwaite and Hucknall, Robin Hood county, the English folk hero from which the regiment took it's name. They had responded to Kitchener's posters, to fight in the trenches of Belgium and France, but had been caught instead in a smaller cause and had been pulled out of basic training at Watford to be thrown into street fighting against the Irish Rebels in Dublin .

They were so raw. Most had less than three months of military service. They were unfamiliar with their weapons and many of them had not yet had live firing practice. Young men with guns and little training are as much of a danger to themselves as they are to anyone else. On Dublin's dockside their officers issued live ammunition but ensured that as the men charged their weapons they were pointing their rifles safely out to sea - just in case of accidents amongst such unskilled soldiers.

The officers, all volunteers from English public schools, breakfasted at St. George's harbour side Yacht club while the men opened tins of bully beef and biscuits. Some of the men thought they had landed in France. They were excited, keen, anxious and apprehensive.

In the panelled rooms of the Yacht club the officers were briefed on the outbreak of Rebellion and given their orders. They were to divide their forces. Two of the battalions, Derbyshire men, would march round the city and enter from the west, making their way to Kilmainham hospital, now the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and thence to Dublin castle. They were to be heavily engaged in the rebellion but would suffer light causalities. Their most notable presence became known through the use of Guinness Company boilers mounted on the rear of lorries and deployed around the city centre as makeshift armoured cars.

The other two battalions, the Nottinghamshire men, faced a much graver fate. They were to march straight though the heart of Dublin. Many of the raw young Robin Hoods would never make it. They would never see Belgium or France and never see again the forests of their native Sherwood.

They marched towards their destiny armed only with lee-Enfield rifles and bayonets. There was not a hand grenade between them. At Watford they had left with Lewis machine guns, two to each battalion. A fearsome, drum fed weapon, capable of firing .303 calibre bullets at a rate of up to 600 rounds per minute. But at Liverpool a zealous and bureaucratic loading officer insisted they leave the Lewis guns behind. It was to be a costly error.

The Rebels towards which they now advanced were under the command of Eamon de Valera, the future Taoiseach and President of Ireland. He and his men had been training for this moment for years. They were on home ground, better trained and more experienced than the oncoming Sherwood Foresters, well-armed and superbly positioned in buildings heavily reinforced with sandbags and makeshift barricades. Their task was to hold the Mount Street Canal Bridge and prevent troops entering the city centre to reinforce those already fighting around the General Post Office. They had to stop the oncoming Sherwood Foresters.

At Clanwilliam house, directly opposite the Mount Street bridge, De. Valera deployed some six men armed with a mix of Lee-Enfield's, German Mausers and Italian Martini rifles. The house was a large gracious three story Georgian end terrace, with long elegant windows which gave commanding views over the approaches to the Mount Street bridge. More men were deployed in a school on the south corner of the bridge. And on the approach road to the bridge, at No. 25 Northumberland Road, behind barricaded and looped firing positions were deployed the experienced rebel volunteers Lt. Grace and Lt. Malone. They were to inflict the first and the heaviest of the Sherwood's casualties and the house, which still stands, bears a commemorative plaque to their efforts. In all some seventeen rebels held the chosen strongpoint’s around the Mount St. Bridge.

The Mount Street canal bridge area is one of the most opulent of Dublin's suburbs. Graced by large substantial houses. It is in the most sought after residential quarter of the city. But only for the rich for the houses are splendid and today you would pay several million euros for a semi-detached house of the kind in which Grace and Malone now awaited the raw unskilled soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters.

They marched in the fine sunlight of a Dublin Spring. From Kingstown, where they landed (now known as Dun Laoghaire) though the wide tree lined streets towards the Canal bridge.

The Battalion adjutant Capt. Dietrichsen, a Nottingham barrister, was surprised and delighted to find his wife and children amongst those waving and welcoming the marching troops. She was an Irish girl, Beatrice Mitchell, from the noted Dublin wine merchants; she had left their home Nottingham, in fear of German Zeppelin raids, for the safety of her parent’s family home in Blackrock, Dublin. They embraced and hugged in the pure joy of the surprise.

Some harassing fire was directed at them as they neared the vicinity of the bridge but it was not of any great or determined effect. It was largely an enjoyable march, for the residents welcomed them and pressed tea and sandwiches upon the soldiers and offered gifts, including maps and field glasses. The battalion scouts riding ahead on bicycles were given detailed intelligence as to the Rebel positions towards which they now approached. Not all the intelligence was accurate.

Captain Dietrichsen was amongst the first of the Robin Hoods to die. Less than an hour after embracing his family in Blackrock, just 200 yards from the canal bridge, he, with the advance guard of the battalion, came under withering sustained fire from the rebels in 25 Northumberland Road. Ten Sherwood Foresters fell , amongst them Captain Dietrichsen and his colleague Lt. Hawken. The soldiers fell back into the opposite side of the road not yet knowing from where the shots had come.

They deployed along Northumberland Road in the spring sunshine, returning fire when they could. But street fighting with rifles is an ineffective response to a well-positioned urban enemy behind good and organised cover. What you need to get them out is light artillery, or tanks. The Lewis guns, left behind in Liverpool, would have kept the rebel heads down and reduced the now rapidly escalating casualties, but without a heavier and better armed response then it was always going to be wasteful slaughter. So it was to prove. Whatever these young raw Robin Hoods lacked in military experience and skills, they lacked nothing in bravery. Number 25 was identified as the source of their comrades sudden death and the remaining officers drew swords and led the men in a ferocious bayonet charge across the road and towards the rebel's house.

As they charged towards Number 25 they were caught in a merciless crossfire as the rebels in Clanwilliam house now opened fire. Terrible casualties were inflicted and soldiers fell all across Northumberland Road. From No. 25, Grace and Malone were firing point blank into the desperate ranks of the Robin Hoods, Grace emptying his Mauser pistol in an orgy of violence in the quiet and gracious suburb.

Northumberland Road was wet with English Blood.

The British infantry had been trained to advance towards enemy lines on the sound of a whistle. It was the only tactic they knew. Now, every twenty minutes, on the sound of a British Army issue whistle, the Robin Hoods again charged their enemy. They charged No. 25 Northumberland Road. They charged the school at the corner of the bridge. They charged the bridge. They charged Clanwilliam House. They charged and charged, and were slaughtered. They were refused permission to flank the rebels with an attack from the right. Only frontal attacks were to be allowed. The attacks were to be pressed home “at all costs”. Frontal charges onto the guns of the rebels.

By late in the day, when the Dublin Military Garrison provided them with a Lewis gun and with hand grenades, they had already lost some 230 men in dead and wounded. They lay all over the quiet suburb, along the grassy canal banks, by the bridge, around the school, the parochial hall, and across the steps of the grand houses.

It was the hand bombs and the machine guns that turned the battle. No 25 was finally overwhelmed with bombs, and one of the rebels shot, the other escaping. The school was taken but no rebels found, only the dead caretaker and his equally dead wife, the bridge was crossed, Clanwilliam house was bombed and burned and here, in the words of the regiments historian, at least three rebels met their death at the hands of the Robin Hoods, the other rebels getting clean away.

From the perspective of the rebels this had been a magnificent victory. So many English dead at the hands of so few rebels. It was the Rorke's Drift of the Rebellion. Seventeen men had held off two battalions of the British Army.

For the British it was a disaster. Within a twenty minute march of the bridge there were half a dozen other bridges that could have been crossed with little difficulty and which would have delayed the soldiers by no more than half an hour. Instead they had engaged in a full-scale struggle with untrained troops against an well-entrenched and highly motivated enemy. It was the classic example of how not to fight a street battle. Perhaps the first important lesson for the British Military in street fighting tactics.

For the raw dead teenage soldiers it was a tragedy. They must have known when they volunteered for the Great War, that death was a possibility, they knew that they might die in Belgium or in France. But death in Dublin would never have entered their minds.

Had they died in Flanders they would at least have merited a well-kept grave with a noble military headstone. They would be visited, and honoured on Remembrance Day. Capt. Dietrichsen, perhaps because his family were in Dublin, got a private marked grave, but unlike those of his comrades who lie in the military cemeteries of Belgium and France, his Dublin corner of a foreign field lies scruffy, neglected and forgotten, his name worn to nothing by the passage of time.

Some of the dead soldiers' lie in decent graves well-kept and tendered with proper care and respect by Irish cemetery staff. Military graves, listed in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, it is the way that military dead should be treated. Others lie in sad untidy plots, scattered around Dublin cemeteries, neglected by age, forgotten by history. One or two of the dead have no graves at all and appear to have been dumped in a mass grave, along with civilian and rebel dead, at Dublin's Deans Grange graveyard.

Perhaps the military performance of the Robin Hoods was considered so poor that they were not and are not recalled with the same degree of honour that we remember the dead from Flanders or the dead from World War II. That cannot be, for these raw young soldiers were as brave as lions. Their slaughter was not of their own making and any military deficiency in the Mount Street bridge battle came from the poor leadership and direction given by the Generals of the British High Command in Ireland, not from the performance or bravery of the Sherwood Foresters, men or officers.

These were young volunteers, as noble as any soldiers who ever died in military service. This November, this Remembrance Day, think of them when you wear your poppy.

They deserve nothing less.

(c) John McGuiggan This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it       

1914-1918 Dublin Memorial

 

This memorial was taken out of a gentleman’s club on Saint Stephen’s Green Dublin some time ago by the Office of Public Works and is now kept in one of their stores in Dublin. It contains the names of ten members of the club who were killed in the Great War 1914-18 and below is their details. On the 100^th anniversary of the start of the Great War, maybe its time to put this memorial on public view once again.

Captain John Henry Brennan – 3^rd Battalion attached 1^st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers – Killed 19^th October 1914 – Age 45 years – Name on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium – Son of the late T.C. Brennan, Montreal, Canada – Husband of Mrs K C Brennan 32 Cyril Mansions, Battersea, London – Other addresses The Noake, Sydenham Road South, Cheltenham also The Carlisle Hotel, Kingstown, Co. Dublin – Awarded 1914 star, British War medal and Victory medal

2^nd Lieutenant Richard Henry Cole Magenis – 3^rd Battalion attached 2^nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles – Killed 15^th September 1914 – Age 27 years – Name on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, France – Son of Edward Cole Magenis, Drumdoo, Ballinaford, Boyle, Co.Roscommon – Other address 18 Burlington Road, Dublin – Awarded 1914 star, British War medal and Victory medal

Lieutenant Reginald Philip Drummond Nolan – 3^rd Battalion attached 1^st Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) – Killed 3^rd November 1914 – Age 31 years – Name on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belguim - Son of the late Philip Nolan Ballinderry, Tuam, Co. Galway – Husband of Mrs R.P.O. Nolan 33 Holland Road, Kensington, London – Other addresses 28 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin also Stonebridge Cottage, Worplesdon, Surrey – Awarded 1914 star, British War medal and Victory medal – (C.W.G.C. states name as Raymond Philip Drummond Nolan)

Lieutenant Norman Ramsay – 4^th Dragoon Guards formerly Royal Field Artillery – Killed 13^th November 1914 – Age 34 years – Buried Dranouter Churchyard Belguim – Son of Mrs Florence M Ramsay, Cams Hall, Fareham, Hants. – Awarded 1914 star, British War medal and Victory medal

Lieutenant Anthony Theodore Clephane Wickham – 4^th Battalion attached 2^nd Battalion Connaught Rangers – Killed 2^nd November 1914 – Age 27 years – Buried Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Belguim – Son of Rev.J.D.C. Wickham and Mrs Wickham Holcomb Manor, Holcomb, Stratton-on-Fosse, Somerset – Awarded 1914 star, British War medal and Victory Medal

Captain Harold Emmott Large – 10^th Battalion Rifle Brigade – Died of wounds 8^th October 1915 – Buried Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard, Laventie, France – Son of Mr. R Emmott Large Latchmore, Brockennhurst, Hants – Brother Mr R. Large Woodlock, Felbridge, near Grinstead. – Awarded 1914-15 star, British War medal and Victory medal.

Captain Heffernan James Considine – 4^th Battalion attached 2^nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment – Killed 27^th October 1916 – Age 33 years – Buried Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery Belgium – Son of Sir Heffernan Considine, Derk, Pallasgreen, Limerick – Awarded Military Cross, British War medal and Victory medal

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Annesley West – Somerset Yeomary, North Irish Horse and Tank Corps – Killed 2^nd September 1918 – Age 40 years – Buried Mory Abbey Military Cemetery, Mory, France – Served South Africa – Son of Augustus E West and Sarah West, Whitepark, Co.Fermanagh – Husband of Mrs Maude E West, 14 Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, London – Awarded Victoria Cross, D.S.O. + bar, Military Cross, 1914 Star, British War medal and Victory medal – Victoria Cross citation. London Gazette 29^th October 1918. ‘’For most conspicuous bravery, leadership and self sacrifice. During an attack, the infantry having lost their bearings in the dense fog, this officer at once collected and re-organised any men he could find and led them to their objective in face of heavy machine-gun fire. Throughout the whole action he displayed the most utter disregard of danger and the capture of the objective was in a great part due to his initiative and gallantry’’

Major Ian Barry George – 18^th Battalion Royal Irish Regiment – Killed 5^th May 1918 – Age 36 years – Buried Brookwood Military Cemetery Surrey – Son of Thomas Barry George late 13^th Light Infantry and Mary George nee Westropp – Brother Rev George 7 Wilton Terrace, Dublin – Awarded 1914 star, British War medal and Victory medal

Lieutenant Bertram Coleby Ransome – 8^th Aux. Steam Coy. Mechanical Transport, Army Service Corps – Killed 30^th June 1918 – Age 47 years – Buried Ste Marie Cemetery Le Havre, France – Son of Richard Charles Ransome and Elizabeth Ransome, Ipswich – Husband of Mrs Ramsome Westfield House, near Ipswich also The Cottage, Sproughton, Near Ipswich

 

References:

Tony Roe (photo)
C.W.G.C.
Medal Index Cards

 

Art Ó Murnaghan, (1872 – 1954)

Remembering 1916

 

As the Centenary of 1916 approaches it is appropriate to recall the monumental work Leabhar na hAiséirighe (The Book of the Resurrection) by the artist Art O’Murnaghan (Arthur Walter Murnaghan). This memorial book consists of illuminated pages of calf vellum with Celtic symbolism and was commissioned in remembrance of the 1916 Rising by The Irish Republican Memorial Society. The page of Celtic decoration with Eire as its theme created by Art, when seen by the Society, won the commission for him. One of this Society’s aims was to have the names of all who died in the struggle for independence, during the years 1916 to 1922, remembered and honoured in this Memorial. However, due to the Society failing to provide a list of the names, this did not happen. But Art did not forget, even though he could not list all the names, he did devote a page as a frame work for the names with the wording ‘h-AINMNEAĊA annso sior. (The Names Here).’.

It should be noted that some pages are indeed devoted to individuals, for instance there is a page devoted to the Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic, a page for Michael Collins and Kevin O’Higgins, another for Cathal Brugha and the Four Untried Hostages and many more. There are also pages dedicated to the Provinces of Ireland.

The Memorial Book can now be viewed in the National Museum of Ireland, Collin’s Barracks, Dublin.

Sandra Heise, Museum Curator, has written about Leabhar na hAiséirighe in the Irish Arts Review (Autumn 2012). Also, in an earlier issue of the same journal (Winter 1985), his grandson Peter Figgis had an article entitled ‘Remembering Art O’Murnaghan’ which presented an interesting account of Art’s life. Both of these articles contain illustrations of pages from the Book.

Art was born in Southampton where his parents, Arthur William Murnaghan and Rachel (neé Philips) lived. Arthur William’s own father came from Loughbrickland in Northern Ireland. On the 11^th September 1898 in Southampton, Art married Katherine Gray Tainsh, the daughter of Edward Campbell Tainsh, and Mary Jane Gray. Edward Campbell Tainsh was a lecturer and writer and is best remembered for his ‘Study of the Works of Alfred Tennyson’. Mary Jane Gray was a daughter of George Gray, Vicar Choral of St.Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. Art’s wife Katherine was an accomplished pianist. In the 1901 census his occupation is given as ‘Artist Decorative and Ornamental Design’ and his wife’s as ‘Professional Pianist’. Art had many other interests, including music, acting on stage and screen, herbs and their health benefits and antiquities. As well as acting in the Gate Theatre he was also the stage manager and assistant art director. In that famous film ‘Odd Man Out’ he appeared in the tram scene on the Falls Road where an IRA man is attempting to escape from the RUC, and the tram conductor was played by Noel Purcell. He also appeared in the 1949 film ‘Saints and Sinners’ with many of the Abbey actors. The film was shot in the beautiful area of Carlingford Lough.

His work, for too many years, lay hidden in the storage vaults of the National Museum. So it was a great moment when the Museum transferred to Collin’s Barracks where it was put on view again.

He is buried, with his wife Katherine, in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.

His portrait by Estella Solomons is in the National Gallery in Dublin.

References.

Figgis, Peter, ‘Remembering Art O’Murnaghan’, Irish Arts Review, Vol.2, No.4, 1985.

Heise, Sandra, ’Leabhar na hAiséirghe’, Irish Arts Review, Vol.29, No.3, 2012.

Larmour, Paul, ‘Celtic Ornament’, The Irish Heritage Series No.33, Eason and Sons Ltd., Dublin.

The Shooting of D.M.P. 2^nd Assistant Commissioner William Forbes Redmond

In January 1920, as the military campaign in the War of Independence which had commenced on 21 January 1919, entered its second year, the streets of Dublin had become a dangerous ground in the struggle between Active Service Units of the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) and Michael Collins’ Squad against the forces of the Crown which included G Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (D.M.P.), the British Secret Service, British Military Intelligence, the British Army, and elements of the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C) based in Dublin to identify and apprehend rural members of the I.R.A. on the run who opted to hide out there. By and large the uniformed branch of the D.M.P. took no part in operations or acted again the I.R.A. as they were aware of the fate that awaited them if they interfered and so confined their role to ordinary policing and ignored those crimes or activities that they were perceived to have a political dimension.

In January 1919 Collins held a meeting in 5 Cabra Road, Dublin, with Eamon (Ned) Broy, one of his three covert intelligence gatherers/informants in G Division, during which they discussed what action could be could be taken against the police. In the ensuing discussion it was agreed that no action would be taken against those uniformed D.M.P. members who did not take part in anti-Sinn Féin or I.R.A. activities so not to alienate them, as the majority of the force were anti-British in outlook. The R.I.C. was a different matter as its members posed a threat to the I.R.A. in rural areas as members acted as the eyes and ears of Dublin Castle so it was agreed that small stations would attacked and those that were evacuated would be burned down to prevent their future re-occupation and use. Pressure would be brought to bear on members through other family members that they should not hinder/impede the work of the I.R.A. It was also agreed that no member of G Division would be attacked so that they could see that if they took no action against the I.R.A. they were safe from attack. However those G-men who persisted in acting against the I.R.A. and Sinn Féin would first receive a warning to cease their activities prior to any action being taken against them.

As Director of Intelligence, Collins had three intelligence gatherers / informants in G Division - Eamon Broy, David Nelligan, and Sergeant James McNamara, each of whom was unknown to the other and whose information reached Collins via various couriers. With the assistance of Broy, Collins obtained a fair idea of whom in the D.M.P. he was up against, particularly those who posed the greatest threat to him, following an overnight examination of G Division files in the Central Police Station, Pearse Street, Dublin, on Monday 7 April 1919 after being smuggled into the building by him specifically for this purpose. Two days later a number of G Division detectives received warning letters about their intelligence gathering operations but not all of them heeded this warning. Others received personal visits from I.R.A. members and were warned about their excessive zeal and advised to desist in their activities or face serious consequences.

Most chose to ignore this warning and paid the ultimate penalty -

·        Detective Sergeant Patrick Smyth was shot on 30 July 1919 at Drumcondra Bridge while on the way home to his residence at 51 Millmout Avenue, Drumcondra, and died in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, on 8 September 1919 from the effects of his wounds where he had been a in-patient since he had been shot.

·        Constable Thomas Wharton was shot and wounded on 10 November 1919 at the junction of Cuffe Street and Harcourt Street, Dublin. He was pensioned off on 6 June 1920.

·        Detective Sergeant John Barton was shot outside the Central Police Station on 28 November 1919 and died from his wounds shortly after being admitted to Mercer’s Hospital.

By the end of 1919 morale in G Division was at an all-time low and in order to beef up its operations, a Belfast detective, Inspector William Charles Forbes Redmond was drafted in to intensify the campaign against Collins with the specially created rank of 2nd Assistant Commissioner and was the most senior D.M.P. officer killed during the War of Independence.

William Charles Forbes Redmond was born in Newry, Co. Armagh in 1874, the son of Mr. W.F. Redmond, a well-known timber merchant in that town. Educated at the Friend’s School, Lisburn, and the Corrig School, Kingstown, he joined the R.I.C as a cadet in 1895 and was promoted 2nd Class District Inspector in 1899. His first posting was to Spiddal, Co. Galway where he served until 1903 after which he was posted to Portlaoise, Co. Laois. In 1905 he was transferred to Belfast where he served until his move to Dublin in 1920. In 1908 he was promoted to 1st Class District Inspector. On Easter Monday 1916, he took a fleet of motor lorries and cars with 200 policemen to County Galway. During the First World War, he held the rank of Major in the 6th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, re-joined the RIC in early 1918 and was drafted in from Belfast in January 1920 to head up G Division with the position of 2nd Assistant Commissioner being specially created for him.

His role was to liaise between D.M.P. and the R.I.C. and to improve intelligence gathering on the I.R.A. and the detection of its members. On arrival in Dublin Castle in January 1920 he installed his own team of undercover detectives from Belfast but let it slip while berating the Dublin detectives for their failure to catch Michael Collins that there was a British agent [John Charles Byrnes using the alias Jack Jameson] close to him – he was later eliminated by members of Collins’ Squad.

This remark was conveyed to Michael Collins who considered Redmond a very dangerous adversary and needing a photograph of him, sent Frank Thornton to Belfast where he linked up with Sergeant Matt McCarthy, a Belfast equivalent of Broy, who allowed him entry to Belfast’s Chichester Street police station on the night of a police championship boxing tournament attended by Redmond and other officers. While they were at the boxing match, Thornton gained entry to Redmond’s office and removed a photograph of him from a file which was then conveyed to Collins.

Redmond stayed in the Standard Hotel, Harcourt Street, Dublin, while accommodation was being prepared for him in Dublin Castle, and walked daily between these two locations without escort, bodyguard, or regard for his personal security, in civilian clothes, complete with bowler hat, which gave him the outward appearance of being a stockbroker rather than the skilled detective that he was, though he did carry a personal firearm for self-protection. He maintained a daily schedule of leaving the hotel after breakfast for Dublin Castle and returning there between 6 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. in time for dinner at 7 p.m.

Very quickly Redmond began raiding houses that Collins used and became such a threat to him that it became necessary to have him eliminated before he got to him first – ‘We better get him before he gets us’. Collins’ first step was to install Tom Cullen in the hotel to keep an eye on Redmond and to collect information on his movements and habits.

Members of Collins’ Squad waited for the opportunity to eliminate this dangerous quarry with up to eight men assigned to get him deployed in the role of shooters and cover party. On an elimination assignment it was normal practice to have two shooters – one to knock he victim down to the ground with a large caliber round, preferably.45 A.C.P. or .455, and the other to finish the job with a head shot, supported by a covering party to ensure that there was no interference with the mission and to enable the shooters to escape.

The opportunity to eliminate Redmond came on the evening of Wednesday 21 January 1920 when the Squad was ready and waiting to carry out this assignment. Jim Slattery, Vincent (Vinny) Byrne, and Tom Keogh were in position waiting for him as he emerged from Dublin Castle but suddenly without warning he turned around and returned inside. The trio remained in position and their wait was justified as shortly afterwards Redmond emerged again and as he walked along Dame Street, turned up Grafton Street and continued along the west side of St. Stephen’s Green towards the hotel in Harcourt Street, unaware that he was being followed all the time.

Vinny Byrne and Tom Slattery were assigned the role of cover party for the shooters while Joe Leonard, Paddy O’Daly, and Sean Doyle, went on into Harcourt Street and took up their positions. Leonard and O’Daly waited on one side of Harcourt Street and Doyle on the other and knew that Redmond was near when they saw Keogh and another member on the mission take up position on the railings’ side of St. Stephen’s Green.

At 6.10 p.m. as Redmond neared the hotel, Keogh shot him in the back which brought him down while O’Daly then administered a head shot behind the left ear. This was the fatal wound as it severed Redmond’s spinal chord at the second vertebrae while the other bullet passed through his liver, a lung and his stomach. Dr. Robinson, 13 Harcourt Street, was on the scene instantly but Redmond died within a minute or two of being shot. The Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance was summoned and Redmond’s body was removed to the Meath Hospital where the formal inquest was held the next day.

The five men involved in the operation were reported running away from the scene but no-one tried to apprehend them even though there were a number of British soldiers in the area at the time.

The media the next day devoted extensive coverage to the Redmond’s shooting with interviews, comments, and speculation. Dr. Auckinleck, 7 Harcourt Street, said that after he heard the shots he went to Dr. Robinson’spharmacy and saw the commissioner who was still alive but bleeding profusely. Doctors Robinson, Cope, and Magennis, did all they could for the unfortunate man but he died almost immediately. There was a bullet wound in the jaw and he believed that the bullet was lodged in his head. He added that he thought that the shot had been fired from no greater distance than 3 feet, probably no more than 18 inches, and must have been fired from slightly behind him.

Dr. Magennis, 56 Harcourt Street, said that around 6.30 p.m. he was called to attend a man who had been shot. He went to Dr. Robinson’s where in the hallway he saw the dead body laid out which had a wound just under underneath the left ear which had severed the carotid artery, and thought that death had been instantaneous. He also made the observation that Redmond appeared to have one hand in his pocket clutching a revolver.

Dr. Cope, Harcourt Street, who was also interviewed by the media, said that Commissioner Redmond was dead by the time that he arrived and agreed that death must have been have been instantaneous.

A young lady, unnamed, who resided close to the scene of the shooting, said that she heard two shots in quick succession. She came out onto the street and saw a man lying partly on the footpath. There were three of four men with him and returned to her house and immediately sent a man for a priest and telephoned for an ambulance. Fr. Sherwin from St. Stephens Green Presbytery responded to this call and arrived shortly after Redmond had been brought into Dr. Robinson’s premises. When she re-emerged, a large crowd had gathered obstructing her view of what was going on.

Another woman, also unnamed, said in a newspaper interview that Redmond was closely followed into Harcourt Street by two men and that when he came near the Children’s Hospital where the street was darker compared to other parts of the street, the two men approach him quickly, and one of them, drawing a revolver, fired point blank at him and then without hesitation fired a second shot. Both shots were fired by the same man at a range of only a few paces.

A young man, again unnamed, told reporters that he was passing up Harcourt Street from St. Stephens Green on the right hand side towards Cuffe Street, and was about 20 yards away from the shooting site when he heard two shots and saw two men run across the street and up towards Montague Street. He did not notice what they wearing as at that time his attention was drawn to the man lying in the street. There were two soldiers on the spot and thought that they must have been very close to the deceased when the shots were fired. A woman came to them just then and said that she saw two men run away. One of the soldiers put his hand under the deceased’s head and lifted it up. The place [street] was pretty dark and he struck a match and saw a bullet wound between the jaw and cheek bone with blood pumping from it very freely. The man appeared to him to be dead at the time as he did not either speak or groan. In his opinion the shots were fired from the opposite side of the street.

At the Meath Hospital, Dr. McKay, House Surgeon, told reporters that that Redmond’s body had arrived there at around 6.55 p.m. with one visible wound – in the left jaw. He said that no examination of the body had taken place pending instruction from the authorities or the Coroner. He refused to say how many wounds were in the body other than there was one in the neck and that the body was laid out in the hospital mortuary.

The official version of the shooting released by the D.M.P., stated –

‘Mr. W.C.F. Forbes Redmond, Assistant Commissioner, D.M.P., was returning from the Castle to his residence, was walking along Harcourt Street, towards Harcourt Street Station, and on that side of the street, when he was shot through the head, and fell forward on the pavement where a large pool of blood was left.

At the time, about 6.15 p.m., he was passing the laneway or archway between No.90 and 91 Harcourt Street, and almost directly opposite Dr. Cecil’s Robinson’sresidence, No. 13 [west side of the street].

There was quite a crowd passing through the street, as it was just after the business closing hour. Most of them ran away when the shots were fired but several went to Mr. Redmond’s assistance and carried him across the street to Dr. Robinson’s. He was unconscious from the instant that he was shot and only just breathed when taken in.

There were no policemen in the immediate vicinity. A number of people telephoned to the police and called up the Corporation ambulance. Mr. Redmond was not escorted, and did not draw the automatic [pistol] he had in his pocket, so far as we could learn, but he had his hand on the pistol in his pocket.

The Chief Commissioner, Col. Johnstone, and Mr. Fergus Quinn, Assistant Commissioner, arrived at the Meath Hospital shortly after the deceased was brought there, and subsequently visited the scene of the shooting. No arrests have been made.

The bullet seems to have gone right though the neck between the base of the lower jaw and the ear and severed the carotid artery.

He was shot when passing the little laneway across the street from the chemist shop and the Ivanhoe Hotel’

The following day, Dr. A. Byrne, City Coroner, opened the inquest on the remains of 2nd Assistant Commissioner Redmond at 4.30 p.m. in the Meath Hospital. After being sworn in, the jury viewed the remains in accordance with the practice at that time, and then heard testimony from several witnesses.

John Hamilton Redmond, Hollyrood, Malone Road, Belfast, identified the remains of those as his brother William Charles Forbes Redmond, aged about 46, an Assistant Commissioner with the D.M.P. but was unable to say on what date the deceased took up duty in Dublin.

He was followed by James Costello, Sandymount Avenue, Ranelagh, who stated:- ‘Around 6.10 p.m. on Wednesday I had come from Montague Street into Harcourt Street and got as far as the Ivanhoe Hotel when I heard two shots and saw five men running in the direction of Montague Street. I saw a gentleman fall on the opposite side, ran to him and found him lying face downwards at the kerbstone. I turned the man on his back and asked him if he was shot but received no answer. Blood was gushing from his face. I placed my knee under the man’s head and waited until Dr. Robinson came across from No.13’.

Asked if he could identify any of the men, Mr. Costello said that could not identify any of the men he saw running away and that the only description he could provide was that they all wore overcoats and one a soft hat, and did not devote further attention to them as when he saw the gentleman fall, he ran over to him.

Martin Moore, 1 Synge Street, stated that he was employed at Kavanagh’s yard, 91 Harcourt Street. He heard two shots and said that he saw a man lying at Kavanagh’s gateway.

Dr. Cecil Robinson testified:- ‘I was in my dining room when I heard two shots and saw a man lying on the opposite side of the street. The man was dressed in civilian clothes and I went to his assistance. He was suffering from a serious wound on the left jaw and was bleeding profusely. I had the man moved to my own house, and subsequently to the Meath Hospital’. He concluded his testimony by stating that within a minute of seeing the man, he died.

Dr. McKay, House Surgeon, Meath Hospital, stated:-The deceased was brought to the hospital around 6.55 p.m. in the ambulance. On admission, life was found to be extinct. Acting on the instructions of the Coroner, I carried out a post-mortem examination with Dr. Boxwell. This revealed a small wound about a third of an inch in diameter on the right side of the neck about two inches to the right of the middle line, behind, and about two and half inches below the base of the skull. A second wound with ragged edges about half an inch in diameter over the lower jaw. A meat probe readily passed from the wound in the neck through the soft tissues between the second and third vertical vertebrae – both were fractured.

Another wound was found two inches from the middle line over the eight rib. On the front of the body there was a dusky patch of discoloration. Underneath the unbroken skin over that area, a foreign body could be felt. An incision of the skin revealed a lead bullet. Further investigation revealed that the bullet had pierced that base of the left lung, stomach, and the left lobe of the liver, lodging under the skin. In his opinion, death was due to the cessation of respiration and hemorrhage.’

At this point the Coroner remarked that death must have been instantaneous. Questioned about the bullet wounds, Dr. McKay said that the first bullet created two wounds – entry and exit. The second bullet struck the trunk and lodged under the skin and that this was the one that was found. Dr. McKay then produced this bullet to the inquest, confirming that it had been removed from the body of the deceased.

No further witnesses were called and after summing up the evidence, the Coroner allowed the jury to consider their verdict which they returned as:-‘We find that the said William C. F. Redmond died on 21 January 1920 from the effects a bullet which severed the spinal cord and we find a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons, and we wish to express our abhorrence of this dastardly outrage, and tender our deepest sympathy to the relatives of the deceased’.

Mrs. Redmond was in England with their two daughters who were returning to school after the Christmas holidays when she received news of her husband’s death. Mrs. Redmond, who originally came from Dublin, returned to Dublin and visited the Meath Hospital immediately before the inquest. The funeral took place the day after the inquest and was strictly private.

While some versions of the shooting claim that Redmond was wearing a bullet proof jacket, an example of which is held by the Museum of Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin 7, this appears to be unlikely as had he been wearing one, it should have stopped he bullet that Dr. McKay produced at the inquest.

 

References

Abbott, Richard, Police Casualties in Ireland 1919 – 1922, Cork, 2000.

Bennett Douglas, Encyclopaedia of Dublin, Dublin 1994.

Conolly, S.J. (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Irish History, Oxford, 1998.

Coogan, Tim Pat, Michael Collins – A Biography, London, 1990

Dwyer, T. Ryle, The Squad and the intelligence operations of Michael Collins, Cork, 2005.

Forrester, Margery, Michael Collins – The Lost Leader, London, 1972.

Garvin, Tom, 1922: The Birth of Irish Democracy, Dublin, 1996.

Hickey D.J. & Doherty, J.E. (Eds.), A New Dictionary of Irish History from 1800, Dublin, 2003.

Nelligan, David, The Spy in the Castle, Reprinted London, 1999.

Ó Conchubhair, Brian (Ed.), Dublin’s Fighting Story 1916 -21, 1948, Reprinted Cork, 2009.

O’Herlihy, Jim, The Dublin Metropolitan Police – A Short History and Genealogical Guide, Dublin, 2003.

O’ Keeffe, Héléne, To Speak of Easter Week – Family Memories of the Irish Revolution, Cork, 2014.

Ryan, Meda, Michael Collins and the Women Who Spied for Ireland, Cork, 2006.

Sheehan, William, British Voices – From the Irish War of Independence 1918 - 1921, Cork, 2007.

Sheehan, William, Fighting for Dublin – The British Battle for Dublin 1919 - 1921, Cork, 2007.

Walsh, Maurice, In Defence of Ireland – Irish Military Intelligence 1918 – 1945, Cork, 2010.

 

The Evening Herald, 22 January and 23 January 1920.

The Irish Independent, 22 January and 23 January 1920.

The Irish Times, 22 January and 23 January 1920.

From Bray District Command Local Defence Force Unit to 62 Reserve Defence Force Infantry Bn.

On 1 October 2005 as part of the reorganisation of the Army Reserve, existing units of An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (F.C.A.) and An Slua Muiri were dissolved and reconstituted as new units of the Reserve Defence Forces. One of the units dissolved was the 21 Infantry Battalion (Bn) F.C.A. with headquarters in Bray, Co. Wicklow, covering south County Dublin and all of County Wicklow east of the Wicklow Mountains and was amalgamated with the 20 Infantry Battalion in Dublin to form the 62 Reserve Infantry Battalion. Like many F.C.A. units the 21 Infantry Bn can trace its ancestry back to A Group of the Local Security Force (1940) and the Local Defence Force (1941–46).

The Local Security Force

On June 24 1940, faced with the possibility of a German invasion, the Government decided to initiate its own Local Defence Force Scheme based on the British Local Defence Volunteers, later called the Home Guard, with formal details of this new organisation being announced by Taoiseach Eamon de Valera at election meetings in Galway on May 25 and Clifden on May 26. Further information on what the Government had in mind emerged in the Dail 2 days later during the announcement by the Taoiseach of the formation of an All Party Defence Council when he stated that the reserves of the Regular Army and the First Line of Volunteers were being called up and that work on the registration of men for service in the Local Security Corps/Guards who would serve in their own areas was about to commence.

A massive recruiting campaign to increase the strength of the Defence Forces commenced with volunteers being sought in:

·         The Regular Army on a normal engagement,

·         The Regular Army for the duration of the Emergency,

·         The Volunteer Force.

·         The Local Security Guards in which volunteers would serve in their own time and in their own district.

National Service enrolment forms were made available at garda stations on which volunteers could indicate which force they wished to join. The response to the Local Defence Guards was excellent with volunteers spanning all occupations, religious denominations, social and political backgrounds volunteering their services. On June 22 1940, this organisation now renamed the Local Security Force, and under the control of the Department of Justice, was divided into the A Group and B Group with the former acting as a military section and the latter as an auxiliary police force following a Government decision to arm the A Group to provide armed protection for the B Group.

The Bray District Command A Group Local Security Force - 1940

In 1939 the Bray Garda Division consisted of stations at Bray, Enniskerry, Greystones, Newtownmountkennedy and Roundwood, in Co. Wicklow and Shankill in Co. Dubin.

Bray, Co. Wicklow, was the largest town in the Bray Garda District with a population of about 11,000 engaged principally in the local economy which consisted of light industry. Others were employed in a variety of small industrial concerns, on local estates and farms as agricultural workers, in shops and offices or commuted to Dublin. Other large centres of population in this area were Roundwood, Kilmacanogue, Greystones and Enniskerry where most people were employed locally in agriculture and rural light industries.

While recruiting for the Local Security Force commenced as early as June 2 1940 in Dublin, the recruiting and enlistment of personnel did not commence in Co. Wicklow for about another week but once it did, the response was very good. In Bray, Co. Wicklow, recruiting commenced on June 10 1940 with 50 members of the Bray and Shankill Old I.R.A. marching from Church Terrace to the Bray garda barracks to present themselves for enlistment along with an array of townspeople spanning all religious social, political and employment backgrounds. Over the next 6 weeks recruiting of personnel continued at a steady pace, aided by newspaper advertisements which urged people who wanted to assist in the defence of their county to join the Local Security Force and to sign on at the nearest garda barracks.

By mid-July it was reported that the Bray Local Security Force had a strength of 400 men covering Bray, Enniskerry, Greystones, Newtownmountkennedy, Kilmacanogue and Shankill. By July those presenting themselves for enlistment in the Local Security Force were required to indicate at the time of enlistment which Group they wished to join, A Group or B Group, as by this time each Group had been assigned a clearly defined role.

‘A’ Group consisted of people eligible for military service who were willing to assist the Defence Forces in an emergency and wished to prepare themselves for such service by undergoing a course of military training.

The duties of A Group were divided into 4 main categories:

1.      Patrolling and Observation

2.      The organisation of defensive measures,

3.      Armed protection,

4.      The rendering of assistance to the Defence Forces in an emergency and the preparation therefore by undergoing military training

‘B’ Group consisted of people who wished to aid in the defence of the State but were unable, for one reason or another, to be able to undergo military training and were willing to undertake auxiliary police duties.

The duties of B Group were divided into 4 main categories:

·         Patrolling and Observation,

·         Communications,

·         Control of transport

·         Miscellaneous emergency measures

 

By mid-July Bray District A Group Members were undergoing military type training while B Group Members were being sent out on patrols through the District Area. During the second week of August, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Group members were presented with their badges which bore the initials C.A which stood for Caomhnoiri Áitiúila / Local Security Force.

A statutory instrument formally establishing the A and B Groups of the Local Security Force came into force on September 12 1940 with provision being made for the transfer of A Group members to a new body, the Local Defence Corps, to ensure that they would be accorded prisoner of war status, if captured by a belligerent and not shot as partisans / resistance members. The new body was to come into existence once the Irish Defence Forces had been mobilised to resist an imminent invasion with the automatic transfer of A Group members to the Local Defence Corps taking place in this eventuality.

In October 1940 the Garda authorities were ready to attest members of both Groups with this ceremony for the Bray District Command taking place in Aravon School, Bray, on Sunday, October 13 1940 at which 163 A Group and 130 B Group members were sworn in separate ceremonies with a second ceremony taking place on Friday October 18 for those who had been unable to attend the Sunday October 13 1940 ceremony.

The Bray District Command Local Defence Force 1941 to 1946

On December 31, 1940 Emergency Powers (No.61) Order, 1940, came into effect under which from that date the A and B Groups of the Local Security Force were abolished as was the creation of the Local Defence Corps, and were replaced with 2 new organisations which took over the role of the A and B Groups of the Local Security Force with effect from January 1 1941.

The Local Defence Force took over the role of the former A Group Local Security Force with existing members being automatically transferred into the new organisations, which now moved from under the control of the Minister for Justice to that of the Minister of Defence. The Local Security Force took over the role of the former B Group The Local Security Force, retaining the title of Local Security Force, and continued in its role as an auxiliary police force while remaining under the control of the Minister for Justice.

Almost immediately after its creation members of the Bray District Command Local Defence Force were called out on January 2 1941 to help search the Stylebawn Area of Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, for 2 magnetic mines dropped overnight by a belligerent (German) aircraft on snow covered ground. Gardai and the Local Security Force also took part in the search and when located, these devices were made safe by the Ordnance Corps and then detonated in situ The incident showed volunteers in both organisations that they had a role to play and that they were not merely playing at soldiers or security guards.

Being under Army control brought a great boost to the Bray District Command Local Defence Force as the 5 Bn of the Regular Army based in Bray was able to provide instructors, training and badly needed equipment.

Initially Bray District Command Local Defence Force Headquarters was in 2 small rooms in Quinsboro Terrace, Bray, but moved later due to reasons of space to 11 Quinsboro Road, Bray, before moving in January 1942 to Rockbrae House on the Vevay Road, Bray, which was leased by the Department of Defence from its owner Mr.T.H. Hanbury, Trim.

During the period 1941 to 1945 members took part in ceremonial parades, military exercises, undertook annual rifle practices, with a major boost being the issuing of a green service uniforms, great coats, and the issue of other items of military kit in 1942. In 1943 so many members served part as extras in the film ‘Henry V’ filmed on the Powerscourt Estate outside Enniskerry, Co.Wicklow, that training had to be suspended for the 6 weeks of filming there.

On October 1 1945 the Local Security Force was disbanded in succession to the Air Raid Precautions Service, which had been stood down previously but was subsequently reconstituted in the 1950’s as the Civil Defence Organisation which functions presently.

What the future held for the Local Defence Force emerged in the course of Question Time in the Dail on February 6 1946 when it emerged that the Local Defence Force would be disbanded with effect from March 31 and that a new organisation, An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil, the F.C.A., would replace it with effect from April 1 that year. Members of the Local Defence Force would be required to hand in their uniforms but would be allowed to retain their boots and groundsheets. The title of the Local Defence Force was also amended to that of ‘The Local Defence Force 1941 to 1946.‘

Recruiting for the new F.C.A. units was not permitted until Local Defence Force units had wound up their affairs and throughout the remainder of the month and into March the work of winding up Local Defence Force units and setting up their F.C.A. replacement units carried on. During this period the Bray District Command in common with other Local Defence Force commands received visits from army officers who explained to personnel how the new F.C.A. organisation would operate and who would be eligible to join as there was an upper age limit of 35 years of age for the new force which excluded many members of the Local Defence Force who had given good service but this was accepted in good spirit by most.

During March 1946 individual local District units held stand down parades, except Bray where none was held, with the Local Defence Force 1941 to 1946, ceasing to exist as an organisation with effect from midnight on March 31 1946.

The North Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. 1946 to 1959

The organisation of the F.C.A. differed to that of the Local Defence Force in that the operational areas of the latter were based on Garda Districts while the F.C.A. was organised on a county basis. In the case of Co. Wicklow, the 3 Local Defence Force District Commands of Bray, Wicklow and West Wicklow were replaced by 2 F.C.A. Bns – the North Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. which took over the former Bray District Command Local Defence Force operational area, and the South Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. which took over the Wicklow District Command Local Defence Force operational area.

In 1945 Rockbrae House in Bray, Co. Wicklow had been purchased by the Department of Defence for use by the Bray District Command Local Defence Force as both local and Command Headquarters, and now continued in the role as headquarters for the North Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. One major change for F.C.A. personnel was that all ranks now held military ranks and officers commissions.

In March 1946 Patrick Kehoe was commissioned as a captain in the F.C.A. while Robert Smith and Paul Maloney were commissioned as lieutenants in a ceremony in Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin. All 3 had served with the Bray District Command Local Defence Force, and a fourth member of that organisation, Tim Conroy, was later commissioned as a lieutenant once he was able to furnish his birth certificate.

Captain Kehoe was appointed O/C of the North Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. and with his former Local Defence Force colleagues began the task of building up the new unit. The nucleus of the NCO’s were former Local Defence Force members with consideration for promotion given to former Local Defence Force members who enlisted until courses for new members could be organised. A feature of  the annual 21 Inf Bn summer camp, and that of other F.C.A. units, into the early 1980s were stand down parades for long serving members, some of whom had served with the Local Defence Force.

An increase in I.R.A. activity along the Border during 1957–58 placed great demands on the resources of the Defence Forces and it became clear that a re-organisation was imperative, part of which would impact on the F.C.A., some of whose officers were benefitting from periods of full time training.

F.C.A. Rifle Bn’s such as the North Wicklow Bn F.C.A. received a great boost in the 1950’s with the introduction of new weapons such as the Bren light machine gun and the Gustav sub-machine gun, with the concept of ‘integration’ being moved at the same time which involved transferring F.C.A. units into Brigades with the Permanent Defence Forces thus increasing the number of Brigades to 6, each composed of a mixture of Permanent Defence Force and F.C.A units.

Integration of F.C.A units with the Permanent Defence Forces took place on October 1 1959 with a new unit, the 21 Inf Bn F.C.A being created to cover the Co. Wicklow and South Co. Dublin areas through the merger of the South Dublin Bn F.C.A, the North Wicklow Bn F.C.A. and South Wicklow Bn F.C.A. into one unit, with each of the former Bn’s becoming a Coy within it.

On September 30 1959, Captain Pat Kehoe signed over the North Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. to the 21 Inf Bn F.C.A., becoming ‘A’ Coy of that unit, with Rockbrae House remaining Coy Headquarters in addition to Bn Headquarters. Captain Kehoe now became Coy Commander of ‘A’ Coy but overall command of the new Bn was vested in a Regular Army Officer holding the rank of Comdt.

‘A’ Coy 21 Inf Bn. F.C.A. 1959 TO 2005

On October 1, 1959 the South Dublin Bn F.C.A., the North Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. and the South Wicklow Bn. F.C.A. were merged to become the 21 Inf. Bn. F.C.A. with each of the former Bn’s becoming a Coy in the new Bn with its headquarters in Rockbrae House, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

·         ‘A’ Coy based in Bray took over the former North Wicklow Bn F.C.A. operational area.

·         ‘B’ Coy based in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, took over the former South Co. Dublin Bn F.C.A. operational area.

·         ‘C’ Coy based in Wicklow Town took over the former South Wicklow Bn F.C.A operational area.

1966 was year in which ‘A’ Coy had a very high profile in the Bray area due to its participation in several ceremonies commemorating the 50^th Anniversary of the 1916 rising with the result that recruiting was good. Recruiting was also focussed on the schools in the Bray area and for a number of years there was a good response from them with. Workers tended to parade on weekday nights and students on Sunday mornings.

Remarkably the first 3 Coy Commanders of ‘A’ Coy served on the staff of the Bray District Command –

·         Capt. Pat Keogh

·         Capt. Tim Conroy

·         Capt Robert Smyth

One of the highlights during the 1980’s were ceremonies held in 1984 to mark the 25^th Anniversary of the Integration of the F.C.A. with the Permanent Defence Forces, which in Bray took the form of the blessing and presentation of new 21 Inf. Bn F.C.A. Colours (Bn and Coy), at a special ceremony in Rockbrae House, Bray, on November 4 1984.

The 1990’s ushered in a period of dramatic change for the F.C.A. and for the Coy. The bolt action .303 No. 4 Rifle was replaced by the 7.62 mm semi-automatic F.N. Rifle, something which ‘ A’ Coy members and those from the other Coys had been waiting for over 15 years with new arms drill movements and their commands having to be mastered within a short space of time.

The other dramatic change was the enlistment of female members which, although authorised for F.C.A. units since the 1980’s, did not commence in Rockbrae House until January 1994, after the upgrading of facilities. The public debut of the female members of the Coy took place at the 1994 St. Patrick’s Day Greystones and Bray parades as by this time they had completed their basic training sufficiently to march with the Coy in these two parades.

Another change in the 1990’s was the issuing to members of the new working dress style uniform of combat trousers, pullover, be worn during training instead of the dress uniform. This has subsequently been replaced by combat trousers and jacket.

1996 was a special year for the F.C.A. with the 50^th Anniversary of its establishment being marked with a series of events by the Department of Defence. In Bray, the 21 Inf Bn marked the event by holding an Interdenominational Service in Christ Church Church of Ireland, Church Road, Bray, adjacent to Rockbrae House at which the Government was represented by local T.D., Minister for State, Ms Liz McManus, the Bray Urban District Council by Chairperson, Noel Keys, and other bodies by their public representatives. Lt. Col. Kennedy, Executive Officer, Eastern Command F.C.A. and several of his staff represented the Department of Defence. The attendance also included over 150 former Local Defence Force and F.C.A. members and was the first occasion that the Local Defence Force and the F.C.A. paraded together.

In more recent years the F.N. rifle and Bren light machine gun have been replaced by the Steyr AUG rifle and the General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG).

From 21 Inf Bn F.C.A. to 62 Bn Reserve Defence Force.

Following completion of re-organising the Army Reserve in 2005, the F.C.A. was stood down on 1 October 2005 and replaced by the Reserve Defence Force. With effect from this date the 21 Inf Bn ceased to exist and was amalgamated with the 20 Inf Bn based in Dublin, to form the 62 Reserve Infantry Battalion which is divided into 6 Coys based at the following locations –

·         A Coy  - Casement Aerodrome, West Dublin.

·         B Coy  - Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.

·         H.Q. Coy - Rockbrae House, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

·         C Coy – County Wicklow

·         D Coy – Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.

·         Support Coy – Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.       

The 62 Reserve Inf Bn is part of the 2^nd (East) Reserve Brigade.

A MOST DANGEROUS SOLDIER WITH A RIFLE

On Wednesday 13 December, 1916, a rather unusual incident occurred on the Kingstown to Bray, Co. Wicklow, train which fortunately resulted in no loss of life involving Pte. Patrick McCann, Royal Irish Rifles, while home on leave from the Salonika Front.

In general, soldiers are natural collectors of battlefield souvenirs, usually in the form of weapons, items of ammunitions, decorations, and rank markings of the enemy. Pte. McCann, boarded the 11 a.m. Kingstown to Bray train to visit his family in Bray and after the train left Kingstown, climbed over a breast high third class carriage compartment partition in which decorator Mr. Thomas J. Markey, 35 Wellington Street Upper, Dublin, was sitting. Mr. Markey was on his way to Bray where he was working for the Y.M.C.A. converting the Bray Art Industry premises for use as a recreation room for convalescent soldiers and other soldiers in the town.  Pte. McCann had left his rifle on the overhead luggage rack and when Mr. Markey drew his attention to this fact, Pte. McCann retrieved his rifle and the two men then got into conversation during which Pte. McCann recounted some of his experiences and exploits fighting the Bulgarians in Salonika and then proceeded to describe and demonstrate how the mechanism of his rifle worked.  As he did this, he showed Mr. Markey a Bulgarian bullet which he had in his possession, and  then went on to explained the differences between it and the standard [.303] British service bullet.  Pte. McCann then loaded his rifle with this bullet but was at pains to reassure Mr. Markey that nothing would happen as long as the rifle’s safety catch was applied. oever  All of a sudden the train entered Dalkey Tunnel and  somehow in the darkness  the rifle was discharged with the Bulgarian  bullet  passing close to Mr. Markey  and  entering the partition of the next compartment  in which  Mr. Herbert Mayne, 36 Foster Avenue, Ballybough, manager of the Gaiety Picture Theatre, [the cinema was destroyed by fire in 1918  and the site is now occupied by Dealz] Florence Road,  Bray, was sitting on his way to work that morning. The bullet pierced Mr. Mayne’s right forearm near his wrist, and exited near his elbow and then passed between the arm and body of another passenger without wounding him.  When the train reached Killiney station, Mr. Mayne sought a doctor to treat his wound but none was available so Mr. Markey dressed the wound. While the train continued on to Bray, word was sent to Bray that a doctor was needed to treat an injured man on the train  and on arrival in Bray, Mr. Mayne  was met by a doctor from the Princess Patricia Military Hospital [the former International Hotel, now Bray Bowl] and orderlies from the Royal Army Medical Corps and brought across the road to it where he was treated for his injury.  Initial fears that it was serious injury were soon dispelled as Mr. Mayne said that it was on a minor one. Pte.  McCann was arrested by Head Constable Carroll of the Bray Royal Irish Constabulary and then went to the hospital where he apologised to Mr. Mayne for what had happened and expressed great remorse over what he had done.  Pte. McCann was then brought to Bray R.I.C. Barracks [McGettigans attached to the Royal Hotel now occupies this site] in the Main Street where he held until that evening when he was taken under military escort to Bride Street, Dublin.  After treatment Mr. Mayne returned home and opted not to press charges against Pte. McCann although Pte. McCann would have been liable for prosecution by the military  authorities for various military disciplinary offences  such as unauthorised  possession of the Bulgarian bullet,  improper use of his rifle, loading  it with a bullet without orders,  negligence etc., and  the  general  offence of engaging in  “conduct  to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.” Remarkably Pte. McCann was released the following day by the military authorities and was reported as being in Bray that evening.

It later emerged that Pte. McCann had been involved in a similar incident in Shankill, Co. Dublin, after Easter Week when he injured a man in the arm on that occasion. On Wednesday 3rd May, Pte. McCann was on duty near one of the Dublin barracks, fully equipped, after the recent Easter Week Rising.  He stopped a car-man and asked to see his permit as these were required to move around the city, and was told by the car-man that he had none. Instead of arresting the car-man, Pte. McCann, gave him a false name, and said that he wanted to be taken to Bray, Co. Wicklow, to arrest two Sinn Féiners. The car-man, believing that he had to comply with this request from an armed soldier, did so. When they reached Shankill village, Co. Dublin,  two miles north of Bray, he stopped the car-man in the Main Street,  alighted,  and went into the Shanganagh Hotel [now Byrnes of Shankill], owned by Mrs. Rosenna Byrne, and demanded drink but was refused by assistant [barman] Michael Purcell as the hotel stock was exhausted.  In an effort to intimidate Purcell, Pte. McCann  raised  his  rifle and pointed it at him and it was then accidently discharged, wounding Purcell in the arm who had to  receive  medical  attention. Pte. McCann was arrested by Constable Roche from Shankill police station and two days later appeared before Bray local magistrate Mr. J. W. Reigh, J.P., charged with “being a deserter from the Royal Irish Rifles.”  At this hearing Constable Roche outlined the events that had occurred in Shankill with Pte. McCann being remanded in custody for military escort on that occasion.

Pte. McCann is not listed in ‘The Wicklow War Dead’ so it appears that he may have survived the First World War.

Sources

The Bray & South Dublin Herald – 06 May & 16 December 1916.

The Wicklow Newsletter – 06 May & 16 December 1916.

The Wicklow People – 06 May & 16 December 1916

General Prison Service in the Great War

Over fifty representatives of the Irish Prison Service, ranging in grade from Governors to Warders have been serving throughout the war in various branches of the Army and in the Royal Navy. 

 

Headquarters Staff

 

Keogh James	Second Division Clerk – Joined the Irish Guards 1916, served in France, killed in action February 1918
Ronaldson R.G.    Governor	Second Division Clerk – Joined December 1914, promoted Quartermaster Sergeant
Luscombe G.A.    Medical Officer	Lt. Colonel - Formerly Governor of Kilkenny Prison, now Commandant Prisoners of War Camp, Alexandra Palace London
Hackett B.J.    Warders	Doctor – Assistant Medical Officer promoted Medical Officer August 1918 Mountjoy Prison. Volunteered for military service September 1914 with R.A.M.C. . Awarded Military Cross, mentioned in despatches, and promoted to Captain, still serving in France
Broderick Michael ,	Belfast Prison – Joined Mechanical Transport Corps A.S.C. March 1916, died of gunshot wounds November 1918 at General Hospital Aubergne
Clanachan James,	Londonderry Prison – Reserve called up 1914 Royal Irish Fusiliers, killed in action
Crilly James,	Limerick Prison – Re-enlisted Irish Guards September 1914, appointed clerk at Warley Barracks, proceeded to France August 1918 attached to the Scots Guards
Crowe George,	Maryborough Prison – Recalled to the colours 1914, 3rd Cavalry Brigade R.A.M.C.
Emerson James,	Mountjoy Prison – Volunteered February 1916 Royal Engineers, received a shell wound fighting at Arras, promoted Corporal
Fleming Peter,	Belfast Prison – Joined Royal Engineers August 1914, was in the retreat from Mons, wounded, returned to active service

 

 

Hade Arthur,	Maryborough Prison – Recalled to the Royal Irish Rifles, severely wounded at the Marne, taken prisoner, transferred to Holland
Hargroves Thomas,	Cork Prison – Joined Royal Irish Regiment January 1916, promoted to Corporal, wounded in the Battle of the Somme October 1916, killed in action August 1918
Kelleher John,	Maryborough Prison – Volunteered and joined Royal Garrison Artillery January 1916, transferred as driver to Mechanical Transport Corps. On one occasion had to blow up his motor lorry to prevent if falling into enemy hands
Kelly Patrick J.	Londonderry Prison – Reservist called up August 1914 with the Royal Engineers, on active service at Gallipoli, Egypt and now in Singapore
Kerr Thomas J.	Mountjoy Prison – Recalled to his old regiment 6th Dragoon Guards 1914, went to France, gassed, promoted Sergeant 1917, transferred to the Royal Field Artillery
Loughrey James J.	Belfast Prison – Joined August 1914, now a corporal in Royal Engineers serving in France
Maher Michael,	Sligo Prison – Volunteered 1915 Royal Irish Regiment, transferred to Royal Irish Fusiliers, promoted Sergeant. Posted to Military Provost Corps Cork, transferred to 3rd Garrison Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers June 1917 and returned to France October 1918

 

Meaney Michael,	Clonmel Prison – Joined Royal Irish Regiment May 1915, promoted Sergeant, served France, when he was promoted to commissioned rank, now serving as 2nd Lieutenant
Montieth Richard,	Cork Prison – Re-joined Royal Field Artillery June 1915, wounded at the Battle of the Somme, at present in England
Murphy James,	Cork Prison – Joined Royal Engineers, promoted Corporal. Served in France for four years escaping unwounded, but was accidentally drowned 12th October 1918
O’Neill John,	Maryborough Prison – Recalled to the colours with the Irish Guards, went to France with the Expeditionary Force, killed at Ypres
Reid Hugh,	Clonmel Prison – Joined the Royal Irish Regiment May 1915, promoted Sergeant and later Sergeant-Instructor in a Machine Gun Corps, wounded
Simpson William,	Belfast Prison – Re-joined August 1914, served for some time on H.M.S. Drake, wounded
Smith Joseph J.	Belfast Prison – Joined R.A.M.C. March 1915 and taken prisoner of war March 1918
Walshe James,	Mountjoy Prison – Re-joined January 1916
Walshe William,	Clonmel Prison – Joined Royal Irish Regiment, May 1915, promoted to noncommissioned rank, served Balkans, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, killed 21st September 1918

A Lonely Exile

D McKinley

Robert Crerar’s military career commenced on 6^th April 1898 when he joined the Queens’ Rifles Volunteer Brigade. His promotion was unremarkable but steady, being appointed Lieutenant in 1901 rising to Captain in 1907. About this time he married Helen Bett and they spent their honeymoon travelling in Russia. Next, he transferred to the Royal Scots 4th Battalion, then to the 5th Battalion, eventually resigning in 1911. He was employed as a bank clerk in civilian life but upon the outbreak of war, he volunteered his services to the War office and was appointed as a Captain in the 14^th London (Scottish) Regiment on 1^st September 1914 followed swiftly by promotion to Major on 13^th November 1914. He went to the Western Front in February 1915, but his fortunes were to take several turns before he returned to Scottish soil.

On 11^th August 1915 Crerar was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 8^th Middlesex Regt. It was with this battalion that he was severely wounded in action and deemed medically unfit for further front line service in the military. Exactly what incident took place with this Territorial Battalion remains a mystery but it was to cause him to be unfavourably reported upon throughout his career. A medical board held in London noted he had been transferred to the 1^st Bn London Regiment as of 15^th December 1916 with the rank of Major with precedence of 13th November 1914. The direction of the board was that he was unfit for General Service and should undertake Home Service or Garrison duty abroad. Was this direction due to the incident with the Middlesex regiment that would continue to blight his career? Crerar elected for Garrison duty, away from England and his wife and young daughter.

Crerar, although a Major in the 1^st Bn London Regiment, found himself travelling to Egypt for service with the 1^st Garrison Bn Royal Irish Regiment. This Battalion had been in Egypt from early 1916 and he made his way across France to a Southern French port where he sailed on the “Huntsgreen” in June 1917 via Valetta to Cairo. His journey was recorded in black and white photographs taken by him. On one occasion, he reports in his extensive album that an escort vessel had sighted a periscope and all aboard donned life vests in preparation for the worst. His interest as an amateur photographer yields a fascinating insight into life of an officer in the First Word War. It is all the more interesting given that the War Office actively sought to discourage “snaps” of military life finding their way into private hands. Having landed in Cairo he made his way to Shousa Camp where he remained for a time with “C” company 1^st Bn Royal Irish Regiment. Egypt proved a paradise for Crerar and his camera as he recorded numerous scenes of Egyptian monuments, people, antiquities and, more importantly, the officers and men he served with. Whether on duty or visiting local sights with fellow officers, his camera was never far away.

Once the company had completed work at Shousa they moved to El Azib camp at Fazoum. This was a welcome change from the desert expanses of Shousa. The battalion built new structures and moved old ones, including a hut by hand, a sight caught in the lens of Crerar once more. The battalion moved to Cairo in May 1918 and was involved in suppressing riots by agitators and students. Crerars’ album ends just before Cairo.

On 17 July 1918 an official document was sent from London to the General Officer Commanding in Chief, British forces in Egypt:

“I am directed to inform you that Major R Crerar, 1^st Bn The London Regiment employed with the 1^st Garrison Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment is due by Seniority for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel but in view of reports received whilst he was in command of the 3/8^th Bn, The Middlesex Regiment, and also of his present employment, it has been decided to supersede him for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in his unit.”

 

Crerar was being passed over for promotion. But his file has been extensively weeded and no trace of his misdemeanours exists. This was a man who had commanded a battalion in France and been wounded severely. He had chosen not to sit in a cosy desk job but instead travelled to Egypt where threats to life from enemy and sickness were prevalent. His failure to achieve the higher rank in July 1918 was supported by the suggestion that his behaviour in Egypt was in some way unbefitting his rank. However the accolades Crerar received in the following 9 months cast doubt on these aspersions.

Crerar was mentioned in despatches by General Allenby GCB, GC, MC dated 5^th March 1919 and even more surprising, given his previous failure to achieve promotion, was his award of the OBE in June 1919. Clearly Crerar was a most accomplished soldier to be granted such distinction. He further received an award from Foud, The Sultan of Egypt dated August 1919. This was the Order of the Nile 4^th Class in recognition of his “courage and enthusiasm exerted in his mission”.

Crerar had been recognised on three occasions for his service with The Royal Irish Regiment Garrison Battalion and judging by the candid nature of his photographs he was well respected by his peers. But the inconsistencies did not end there.

Major Crerar sailed to Liverpool from Alexandria arriving on 22^nd March 1920. On the 9^th April 1920 he was officially informed he was being released from the military and should report to Knaresborough House in London to be discharged. At this point Crerar challenged the establishment and queried war gratuities and leave to which he believed he was entitled. Could this failure to award him his correct dues be another example of how someone in the War Office viewed the competency of his service with the Middlesex Regiment or perhaps furtherance of a personal grievance behind the scenes? Whilst agreeing the matter of his leave, the authorities refused to pay him a higher gratuity stating that the Temporary nature of his Lieutenant Colonelcy did not attract remuneration. Having been paid off by the army, he was restored to strength as a Lieutenant Colonel (TF) later that year.

Crerar decided to leave the Army behind and went back to his role as a banker. His album had no additions since 1918 and his papers yielded no further clues to his curious career. During WW2, Lieutenant Colonel Crerar was recalled for Home Service in the Ministry of Supplies earning a Defence medal to add to his awards for WW1.

The title of this article was drawn from Crerar’s own album in which he takes a thoughtful pose in the Egyptian desert with the caption below: “A Lonely Exile”. Did Crerar consider Egypt an opportunity or a penance? Whatever the reason, the lonely exile was awarded a fine set of awards for the Egyptian campaign whilst serving with Irishmen who clearly regarded him as one of their own.

 

Sources:

TNA WO 374 series

Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt

London Gazette

Private Photograph Album of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Crerar.

  

Jack Hayes (1888-1971)

World War I Experiences 

 

By Pat Hayes

Background - John Hayes, known as Jack, was born on 25 April 1888, in Kilmore, Ireland. His father was a boot maker. Jack left school at age 12 to work as a farm labourer on the Saltee Islands, some miles off the coast of Kilmore Quay.

In 1908, aged 20, Jack travelled to Maesteg, Wales, to attend his sister’s funeral. To pay for the funeral, Jack settled in Maesteg, where he found work in the mines. He joined a growing community of people from Kilmore and other areas of County Wexford who were working in and around the collieries of Maesteg.

Enlistment - Although I was under the impression that Jack, my father, enlisted in Cork, Ireland, according to his War Office record (HAM/45443/2554), he enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (#47975) in Maesteg on 31 December 1914, aged 25. He signed up along with his friends John Barry, of Kilmore, and Jeremiah Cosgrave, of Galbally, County Wexford. They probably enlisted in Maesteg on the understanding that they would be allowed to join the Dublin Fusiliers, and that the Army would pay their travelling expenses.

I think they must have gone still dressed in their civilian clothes because a photograph seems to show my father in ‘civvies,’ wearing a cloth cap as Irish M.P. John Redmond, leader of the Home Rule party, passes to inspect new recruits (see Richard Holmes, Imperial War Museum: The First World War in Photographs (London: Carlton Books Ltd, 2001), p. 16)

As they were Irish, Jack and his friends were not subject to conscription. I believe that they were moved to volunteer by the news reports of alleged German atrocities in Belgium and by the promise of independence for Ireland after the war. There may also have been a Christian dimension to the decision.

During training in Cork, my father proved to be a crack-shot, so the regiment planned to keep him there to help train new recruits. However, he pleaded to be allowed to move on with his two friends.

The Dublin Fusiliers were reviewed by King George V at Ryton on Dunsmore in Warwickshire before they travelled to Egypt in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign

Gallipoli - The Dublin Fusiliers were a key part of the 29th Division that sought to open up the Dardanelles strait in Turkey to Allied forces. The plan was for five beaches to be attacked simultaneously. Some of the Dublin Fusiliers were among approximately 2,500 soldiers hidden on an old coal ship, the SS River Clyde. The plan was to surprise the enemy with a 'Trojan horse' style attack on the target known as 'V Beach’. However, they met unexpectedly heavy resistance from Turkish forces.

My father was on the River Clyde and he spoke fairly often of the landings on V Beach. He said the sea was red with blood. He spent a long time sheltering against a sandbank near the water’s edge with bodies floating on the sea and lying on the beach. The landings took place at daybreak; had they taken place at night much of the carnage could have been avoided. My father was one of a small band of “Dubs” (as the Dublin Fusiliers were known) to survive the landing. According to an article on the official website of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association, “after thirty six hours of fighting to get ashore, what was left was one officer...and 374 other ranks, out of a Dublin Fusiliers 1^st Battalion strength of 25 officers and 987 men of other ranks. They had lost 637 men.” (www.greatwar.ie)

Many desperate days of fighting were to follow. He spoke once of being the only survivor of a hand to hand engagement with the Turks. Exhausted, he pretended to be dead. When he got back to base, his Commanding Officer, Captain French, told him that he would be recommended for a medal. Within a few days, before he could make the recommendation, Captain French was killed in action.

Dysentery, as the result of the awful conditions, was to be feared as much as the fighting. My father had dysentery very badly and was sent to a hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. A sympathetic Irish nurse fed him oranges and he felt this aided his recovery. I understand that, on recovery, he asked to be sent back to Gallipoli. He once spoke of finding a friend dead in the latrine. I thought it was John Barry, who he had enlisted with, but I later discovered that John was killed in the Balkans. Jerry Cosgrave, the other friend that my father enlisted with, also died during the war. Both are commemorated as "fallen" in Our Lady and St Patrick's Church in Maesteg.

My father also spoke about his experiences to my sister, Eileen, and her son, Steffan. Steffan reports that Jack had a very high regard for the Turkish soldiers, considering them fearless and scrupulously honourable. They respected the flag of the Red Cross, used to mark a hospital tent, until they discovered that the Allied invaders were using it to store arms too. This made the tent an acceptable target and the Turks blasted it with artillery - with predictable headlines in the British press.

However, my father was disdainful of the British generals, believing that they did not want people at home to know of the sufferings of the soldiers at Gallipoli, which was considered a humiliating defeat. He was also angry that the Irish troops were the first to land and the last to leave. It seems that he felt the Irish troops were increasingly considered expendable.

However, Dad spoke of the efficacy of the eventual withdrawal in January 1916. Rifles were fixed to fire from time to time during the night to make the Turks believe that the Allied forces were still there. By dawn they had all left without a single man being lost. Nevertheless, according to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association document, of the 1012 men of the 1st Battalion Dublin Fusiliers who had gone ashore in April, just eleven men survived long enough to be part of the evacuation in January, from the same beach where the River Clyde still lay aground. Dad was one of those eleven men.

On Leave - Some months later, Jack visited Ireland on leave. Due to the upheaval following the Easter Rising in 1916, he missed the ship that was supposed to transport him to report for duty. He reported to the police in Dublin to avoid being arrested for desertion. They placed him in a cell to sleep the night, where he joined two members of the IRA (known at the time as the Irish Volunteers). Although Jack was in his Army uniform, they got on well. My nephew, Steffan, recounts the following exchange that night, from memory:

"Jack, could we have your blanket"

"What for?"

"We're getting out and we need to tie a rope" He agrees.

"Do you want to come?"

“No. But I'll wish you well"

"God bless you, Jack!"

 

The following morning, Jack was found fast asleep in an otherwise empty cell! Unfortunately, we don't know the identity of Dad's cell-mates.

On another occasion, probably much later, Jack returned to Kilmore to visit his mother. A number of people rode by him on carts and saw only the Army uniform. He was not recognized and there were no conversations on that hot day. Finally, one of his neighbours recognized him and asked why Jack hadn’t called out to him. Jack replied that he was too ashamed, while wearing that uniform.

The Western Front - My father fought on the first day of the Somme, July 1st, 1916. He spoke of one action where the Germans broke through into their trenches. The corporal in charge lost his nerve, leaving my father and another private to organise resistance and fight off the Germans using Lewis machine guns. The corporal was decorated for this action. My father used to laugh quietly about it.

Apart from that, my father seldom spoke of the Somme, except to describe the terrible conditions in the trenches – the blood, the body parts, the lice, the dysentery, the mud, the rats, the rain, the baking sun and the long periods of boredom. He also mentioned fighting at Ypres and Passchendaele. Tots of rum were dispensed to keep the troops warm and also to warm their courage before going over the top.

POW - Dad noticed that after the Easter rising, experienced officers, especially Irishmen, were replaced with boys fresh from school. Towards the end of the war, Dad was supervising a German prisoner together with another soldier, who carried a rifle. A boy officer tried to intimidate the prisoner, taking his watch and a family photograph. The armed soldier told the young officer to return the property. When the officer refused, the soldier turned his rifle on him, to the surprise of the German and my Dad. The officer ordered Dad to take the rifle, but he refused saying that the POW was entitled to keep his property. The boy returned the items, but threatened the old soldiers with court-martial. The German prisoner kissed his two guards. Needless to say, the court martial never materialised!

"Some Lieutenant" - Another story that Jack recounted was that while in France he lost his rifle in the mud. (He had been pulled from the sinking mud himself on at least one occasion!) He feared being placed on a charge, but was friendly with a sentry at a dump where old and broken weapons could be found.

A man in a lieutenant's uniform approached him there. He stood to attention, thinking he would be placed on a charge for being out of bounds. The officer asked who he was and of his background, thereby learning of Jack's service at Gallipoli, The Somme and Ypres. The lieutenant was impressed and thought it outrageous that such a man should have to scavenge for a rifle. Jack didn't understand the emotion in the officer's patronising tone. As the officer left, he noticed how unnaturally upright his sentry friend stood to attention. Once the man had left, Jack's friend seemed concerned.

"You didn't mention me letting you in, did you?" "Why?"

"Don't you know who that was?"

"Some lieutenant. Thought he was something special."

"It was the Prince of Wales!"

War Record - By his account, the losses of the Dublin Fusiliers were eventually so heavy that some battalions had to be disbanded and survivors transferred to other regiments. Dad ended up in the Scottish Rifles (#45443) and was demobilised at Paisley, Scotland, in March 1920 (General Demob 320 (xxv111) KR).

According to Jack's War Office record (HAM/45443/2554), his Service with Colours was 31.12.1914 to 17.01.1919 and his character was describes as “very good.” He received the “1914-1915 Star,” “British War” & “Victory medals”.

Dad was never wounded during World War I, but he was gassed. He received a pension for this but decided to commute it for a lump sum – £40, I think. He regretted this later when living on 30/- per week compensation (following a cave-in at the mine in 1928) with a wife and five children to support. However, he later legitimately ‘beat the system’ when he received “dust” compensation because he had worked underground and a lung X-Ray showed scarring. Although the doctors asked whether he had been ‘wounded’ during the War, and he truthfully answered no, Dad did not let on that he had been gassed!

After The War - Dad married my mother, Anastasia Moore, at the Catholic Church Kilmore Quay, on 4 August 1919, and then moved back to Maesteg to work in the mines and start a family. They had five children. After recovering from the mining accident, he took work at the pit head and later as a labourer on building sites. Dad retired aged 70 and died in 1971 at the age of 83.

 

Sources

The World War I experiences of Jack Hayes (1888-1971) as recounted by his son, Pat Hayes. Additional recollections and supporting evidence were provided by Jack's grandsons, Steffan and Illtyd ap Dafydd.

 

An Unusual Entitlement

The diverse military career of Patrick Farrell

By Conor & Liam Dodd 

A number of years ago a group of medals included in a regional auction in England captured my attention. It appeared to be an unusual combination of medals with what might be an interesting story to tell. The group comprised of a Queen’s South Africa and King’s South Africa Medal, with a later style of official impressed naming, to 4450 Pte. P. Farrell 8^th Hussars, a British War Medal and Victory Medal named to ST 2633 P. Farrell R.N.R. and a Mercantile Marine War Medal named to Patrick Farrell. All of the medals were mounted and had been worn. It emerged, with research, that Patrick Farrell had a long and interesting military career, remarkably serving with the infantry, cavalry, navy, merchant navy and air force before the end of his service.

Patrick Farrell, a labourer from Limerick, enlisted in the 8^th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars in Limerick in April 1899 being sent to the Curragh to join with his unit. A year after his enlistment he was sent to South Africa for service during the Anglo-Boer War with the 8^th Hussars who had arrived there in May 1900. The following month, whilst at Bleomfontein, it emerged that Farrell had fraudulently enlisted having previously served in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, a fact he failed to declare when filling in his attestation papers to join the Hussars. Despite this he was retained for service in South Africa staying there until November 1903. During this period Farrell was subject to confinement and imprisonment for disciplinary issues in October 1902 and January 1903, the latter of which resulted in a court martial for the use of “… insubordinate language to his superior officer”. Following the return home of his regiment he was again imprisoned in 1905 leading to his discharge from the Hussars after almost six years service with his character being described as “incorrigible and worthless”. The final ignominy was the forfeiture of the medals awarded to him for his service during the Boer War, which were returned and destroyed.

Again a civilian Farrell went to live with his aunt at Thomondgate in Limerick where he worked as a labourer, including a period with a local flourmill. He remained there until December 1915 when he enlisted in the trawler section of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) with the position of Trimmer. The trawler section, founded before WW1, was a separate section of the RNR that had been founded to actively recruit and train fishermen for potential wartime deployment. This fleet of trawlers and paddle steamers were to be used as minesweepers and patrol vessels in coastal waters. In May 1916 Farrell was assigned to HMS Southern Belle which had been requisitioned a month earlier by the Admiralty for use as an auxiliary minesweeper. Based with the minesweeping force at Harwich Patrick Farrell spent most of his time with the RNR working on board Southern Belle which was engaged in important but dangerous work keeping shipping lanes clear of mines.

His time with the Naval Reserve came to an end in January 1917 when he was sent to Chatham Hospital suffering with neurasthenia, which was described as not being attributable to his service. He was discharged shortly afterwards and left for Scotland serving for a period prior to the end of the war with the Merchant Navy being employed as a ship’s fireman. In October 1918 Patrick Farrell enlisted for a final time, on this occasion with the Royal Air Force. He was posted to No. 12 Group RAF based at Cranwell in Lincolnshire and here he met Polly Grist, a widow from nearby Sleaford, whom he married in 1920. He settled in Sleaford remaining there for the rest of his life and following his discharge returned to the Royal Air Force Cadet College at Cranwell to work as a civilian. It is possible that his employment there ignited his interest in seeing that he was issued with his full entitlement of medals for his service. In 1928 he decided to press for the reinstatement of his South African medals, which had been forfeited twenty-three years earlier. The War Office, after making enquiries with the Admiralty as to his conduct and character during the First World War, decided to reissue his medals that November, hence the later style of naming found on them. Further to this Farrell made an application to the Board of Trade for his Mercantile Marine War Medal, which he had not claimed, and it was subsequently issued, completing his medal entitlement for service over four decades with five different branches of service in two wars. Patrick Farrell died in August 1955 and was buried in Sleaford Cemetery, Lincolnshire. 

Patrick Cullinan and the Albert Medal – Part 1

The Albert Medal

Allan Stanistreet

For the benefit of those readers who may be unfamiliar with the British honours system, it may be convenient to explain exactly what the Albert Medal was and its place in the story of gallantry awards.

The origins of the modern British gallantry award system only go back to 1855, with the institution of the Sea Gallantry Medal (SGM). From then on, the system developed fairly slowly but was given impetus by the Crimean War and the institution of the Victoria Cross (VC) in 1856. This was made retrospective to 1854, the year the war began. The award of the VC was confined to valour in the presence of an enemy, although there were several awards where this was not the case.

Apart from the SGM, there were no awards for what might be termed ‘civilian’ gallantry until 1866, when the Albert Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea was instituted by Queen Victoria (Royal Warrant 7^th March 1866). Only one was awarded under this Warrant: in Gold to Samuel Popplestone, a Devonshire farmer. In 1867 it was decided to broaden the scope of this award and by Royal Warrant dated 12^th April 1867, the award was divided into two: the Albert Medal of the First Class (in Gold) and the Albert Medal of the Second Class (in Bronze) for gallantry considered to be of a slightly lower standard than that deserving of the First Class. These awards were still confined to acts of saving life at sea.

As a result of the gallantry of rescuers in a mining disaster at Tynewydd in South Wales in 1877, the scope of the Albert Medal was increased by a new Royal Warrant, dated 30^th April 1877, This was for Gallantry in Saving Life on Land and again, there were to be two classes of the medal. The Tynewydd disaster produced the largest number of awards for one incident: four Gold and twenty-one Bronze medals.

All the ribbons for these awards were different. The Gold sea award had a ribbon of five blue and four white vertical stripes, while the bronze medal ribbon had three blue and two vertical stripes. The land award had a ribbon of five red and four white vertical stripes for the First Class and three red and two white vertical stripes for the Second Class. A further deviation from the norm was that both Second Class awards had ribbons of only 16 mm wide. This would be altered in 1904 to conventional ribbons of 35 mm. Both First Class awards have always had 35 mm ribbons.

The Albert Medal was a rare and prestigious award of whatever class and were never lightly awarded. Several hundred people were recommended for this award and refused it as not being up to the standard required. It was known colloquially as ‘the Civilian VC’ and is far rarer than the VC with a total of 1,364 VCs (including 3 bars) having been awarded at the time of writing, against only 570 Albert Medals during its currency from 1866 until the year of its demise: 1971. Sixteen ladies received it, the first being in 1880 and the last in 1968 (posthumously). It is worth noting that strictly speaking the Albert Medal is not actually a medal at all, it consists of no fewer than sixty-six components, thus making it a jewel, rather than a medal, which is struck.

At least twelve Irishmen, or men connected with Ireland, have been recipients of this award, with five of these earning it during the First World War as members of the Services, while there were two such awards during World War Two. Probably Ireland’s most decorated hero during WWI was 5130 Sergeant Michael Healy of the 2^nd Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, a man from Dungarvan, County Waterford, who earned the Albert Medal (sadly posthumously), the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal and Bar. His family still proudly holds his medals. No Irish lady was among the sixteen female recipients.

In 1940, King George VI instituted the George Cross (GC) and George Medal (GM), primarily to recognise heroic acts on the part of civilians on the Home Front. The latter award was for deeds deemed not to be up to the standard required for the award of the GC, although neither was lightly bestowed. At that time, there were no fewer than five different awards for “civilian” gallantry: the Albert Medal (1866), the Edward Medal (1907 and 1909), the Sea Gallantry Medal (1855), the Empire Gallantry Medal (1922) and the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry (1909). Since the AM, EM and SGM all had two classes of award, there were in fact eight medals for gallantry available and the introduction of the GC and GM swelled this total even further. During the last war, it was sometimes difficult to determine which reward might be appropriate and so, for a start, the Empire Gallantry Medal was subsumed into the George Cross with all living holders and posthumous awards subsequent to 3 September 1939 required to exchange their original awards for the GC. Of the 130 awards since 1922, 112 were eligible for exchange but not all did so.

The Empire Gallantry Medal had always been considered a level three award, being a lesser award than the Albert and Edward Medals of both classes, thus undoubtedly worthy people, both men and women, from being third in line, became first. This was nonsense of the first order and nobody appears to have thought it through, although worse was to come.

Notwithstanding this, both the Albert and Edward Medals of both classes continued to be awarded until 1949, when it was decided that the Albert (and Edward) Medal of the First Class (the AM in Gold and EM in Silver) should cease to be awarded and those of the Second Class (or Bronze) would only be awarded posthumously. For some inexplicable reason, in 1940, while provision had been made for the GC to be awarded posthumously, no such provision had been made for the GM and so both AM and EM were, quite improperly, used as posthumous GMs. Once again, nobody seems to have thought this through. No Statute or Royal Warrant legitimised this decision. The King’s suggestion that the recipients and families of recipients, together with the Commonwealth governments be consulted seems to have been ignored.

This state of affairs was to continue until, in 1971, after a good deal of lobbying on the matter, particularly on behalf of the holders of the Albert Medal still alive, two Royal Warrants were published abolishing the Albert (and Edward) Medal and inviting living holders in October 1971 to exchange their awards for the George Cross. No distinction was made between the holders of the different classes (although the last holder of the AM in Gold had died in October 1969), despite the fact that, at the time, Bronze medallists had been considered to have performed lesser deeds than the First Class holders – another nonsense. No compulsion was exercised with these exchanges and of the 69 AMs (and 70 EMs), 21 Albert Medallists (and 11 Edward Medallists) elected to retain their original awards. At the time of writing, there are two surviving former Albert Medallists, one for sea service and one for land service, and one former holder of the Edward Medal. 

 The breakdown of Albert Medals is as follows:

                                    Gold Sea                      25

                                    Bronze Sea                   211

                                    Gold Land                    45

                                    Bronze Land                290

The figures are somewhat distorted by the awards during the First World War, when many were earned in the army for what might be described as grenade incidents, where a nervous recruit pulled the pin and dropped the grenade in the trench from which it was being thrown. 23 of the 70 Gold medals were awarded in WWI (5 sea and 18 land). It was given much more sparingly in WWII, with a total of only 45 awards (two to men with Irish connections), with three being in Gold.

One of the Irish recipients was Patrick Cullinan and his story will form part two of this article.

 

Sources

Photographs as published in "Heroes of the Albert Medal" (Token Publishing, 2002)

Military & Medal Books

 Chris Murphy

Growing up in Tipperary I was introduced to the activities of The Royal British Legion and its help in the 60s for the veterans that were in the Old County Home in Cashel where I went with my mother to give them a present at Christmas time. Like a lot of kids I played Cowboys and Indians around The Rock and to commemorate WW1 we had our own Hill 60.

So I have always been interested in history, served in the FCA and later came to England and obtained a commission in the British Army. Some years later, now married, I was out in “Civvy Street” and making my way in life. It was only in the early 1990s I had a few pounds to begin to indulge in my hobby of military history and artefacts, focusing on The Royal Munster Fusiliers. I followed a few Auction Rooms and even went to Dublin in those early days collecting and meeting with a few like minded collectors. Collecting has remained in my blood but to raise some money some years ago towards a bigger factory I reluctantly sold most of my acquired collection. I bought that factory and 20 years later now have 4 businesses manufacturing various products scattered around the UK and Europe and exporting around the Middle East as well as our UK operations and our work with Oxfam and Unicef.

This has allowed me to re-join my hobby some years back and keep collecting. Over the years I accumulated Medals, Books, Militaria and other interesting bits knowing that one day I could do something with the collection, so keeping my Old Irish Regiment bits plus some other “nice pieces” I decided to do some good and return this time to helping veterans on my own. Giving direct help and not through some of the big charities in the same field, admirable as they may be, we bought an 11 acre farm with two houses in South Wales to be used as a respite centre for a Veteran’s Charity. We licenced the farm for a peppercorn rent to Woody’s Lodge, people who believe in “getting stuck in” with helping veterans. I remember how in the 50s and 60s seeing veterans and how life had turned out badly for many of them.

Collecting medals, military books and militaria is a fascinating hobby that helps to develop an interest in our Armed Forces and their involvement with history, geography and social developments around the world. Many Irishmen and Irishwomen have left the shore of Ireland to serve in some far flung parts of what was then The British Empire and Irish names are found all around the world because of this sometimes enforced life.

Somebody once said that “Hunger is a great recruiting sergeant”. This engaging hobby helps to keep the memory of our Armed Forces alive, because today’s veterans are tomorrow’s history. A year ago I bought a shop and set up Military Medals & Books (Bedford) Ltd to help the charity Woody’s Lodge, that supports and mentors veterans, emergency services and reservists in quiet and informal surroundings, helping them to re-engage with life, their families and their communities.

This is my part-time hobby, but with a serious side to create additional funds for Woody's Lodge. Thus, all profits generated by the shop after services have been paid for will be used to assist the charity in its aims. Woody’s Lodge is also my main Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility charity.

At Military Medals & Books (Bedford) you will be able to find a wide variety of military medals and specialised books, as well as a variety of vintage militaria. The items for sale are mainly associated with the British Army. This is a Military Medals and Books Antique Centre, where I also carry out research for interested customers. I do not offer online purchasing or lists. You might say why? Answer: Because I have too many other calls upon my time. Before Covid I was achieving my other aims of its being a ‘Drop-in’ for a coffee, and as well as a ‘Drop-In’ centre for a coffee and a biscuit, also a half-way house to retirement. That last aspect went out the window and we are now planning for another 6 branches and factories. So, I should not really complain with the business growth and my varied charity activities. 

Reunification

Patrick J Casey 

 

One of the most rewarding and satisfying aspects of medal collecting is the reunification of medal groups which have over many years been broken up and dispersed.

In March 1998, I purchased a single Queens South Africa Medal named to 2^nd Lieutenant Herbert Jarrett Kerr of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The medal had five clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902. Nearly a quarter of a century later the remainder of the medals belonging to Lieutenant--Colonel. Kerr appeared on the market in London and I duly purchased them. They comprised of a 1914 Star Trio for the First World War and an Indian General Service Medal with the clasp Waziristan 1919 to 1922. A remarkable amount of documentation came with the medals including both negatives and photographs of the recipient, the most remarkable of which was one of him in the full dress uniform of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, in colour.

Who was Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Jarrett Kerr and what was the story of his career in the British Army? Herbert Jarrett Kerr was born on the 26^th January 1883 in the town of Falmouth, Jamaica, the third son of Herbert, a Planter, and his wife Henrietta. He was educated at Bedford Modern School and joined the 5^th Militia Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the 2^nd October 1900 at the age of 17. He served in South Africa between 1901 and 1902 taking part in the operations in Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Cape Colony (March 1901 to January 1902). He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 16^th of July 1902 and in 1904 he transferred to the Leinster Regiment. We find him back in South Africa with the 2^nd Battalion of the Leinster Regiment between the 9^th June 1904 and the 22^nd January 1906. He served in Mauritius from the 23^rd January 1906, where he is believed to have met his future wife Gwendoline. He served in India from the 26^th of October 1907. He was now a Captain still with the Leinster Regiment but on attachment to the Indian Army Supply and Transport Corps. He married Gwendoline Temple Roberts, the daughter of Alfred Temple Roberts, a School Master, on the 26^th May 1909 at St. Peter’s Tiverton, Devon. Having lost their first baby, John, they gave birth at Simlato another son, Herbert Albert Temple Kerr on the 6^th July 1911. His wife returned to England at this stage and was living at 6, Lodge Terrace, Tiverton, Devon.

After the death of Emily Elizabeth Jarrett in 1912, and under her will, he inherited estates called Golden Grove, Kent, Silver Grove and the Tilston Estate in the Parish of Trelawny, Jamaica. He was also, under the terms of the will required to change his name by either taking the name of Jarrett alone or in addition to the name of Kerr. He changed his name by Deed Poll on the 26^th May 1909 and from this time his name was Herbert Jarrett Jarrett-Kerr. He was still listed with the Leinster Regiment but attached to the Indian Army Supply and Transport Corps, Diragit Brigade and then the Sirkind Brigade. His wife moved to India in 1913 and lived in the Lahore Cantonments. Jarrett-Kerr meanwhile moved from place to place in India being stationed in Amritsar, Murree, Lahore, Rawal Pindi, Dalhousy, Jullundur, Simla and Amballa. He took leave in England from October to May 1912, after which he transferred fully to the Indian Army. On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 he was moved to France where he served with the Lahore Division in various capacities from the 1^st of August 1914 to the 26^th October, 1914 and with the Meerut Division from the 26^th October, to the 21^st November, 1915. In 1917 he was listed as a Captain in Number 2 Ekka Corps (Supply and Transport) in Egypt from the 22^nd November to the 30^th December 1915 and is regarded in the Annual Confidential Report as a good officer with a thorough knowledge of his work. In November he was posted to Mesopotamia and Iraq from 30^th December 1915 to 8^th June 1916. He was promoted Major on the 11^th January 1918 and took two years leave with the intention of retiring and setting up a farm estate in Jamaica. He was recalled to India in 1921 and served in the Waziristan Campaign from 1919 to 1921. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1929, and he retired in January 1932 and died on the 6^th June 1968 in a nursing home in Hazelmere, Surrey He is buried in Holy Trinity Churchyard, West End, Borough of Surrey, England.

His eldest surviving son was Brigadier Herbert Alfred Temple C.B. (1911-1997) who served in the Royal Engineers. 

by Liam Dodd

Lieutenant N.B. Bagenal

Lieutenant Nicholas Beancamp Bagenal, Irish Guards, second son of Mr. P.H. Bagenal, Local Government Board Inspector, has been wounded in the leg and hand. He has previously been wounded in two places at the battle of the Somme on July 1st 1916. Since then he has also been gassed. He is at present in hospital abroad.