Ireland 1919
The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in Ireland 1919-1922
Stanley C.Jenkins
In common with many other British infantry regiments, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was formed by the amalgamation of two line regiments as a result of the Cardwell and Haldane army reforms – the regiments concerned being the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry.
Although these two regiments were associated with Monmouthshire and Oxfordshire respectively, they were, for many years, composed largely of Irishmen. In the early 19th century, for example, the 43rd and the 52nd Light Infantry seems to have been at least fifty per cent Irish, and many of the regiment’s most famous figures were Irishmen, or of Irish descent. For example, Colonel William Rowan, of Metropolitan Police fame, was a native of County Antrim, while Bugler Robert Hawthorne, who won the VC at Delhi during the Indian Mutiny, was born at Maghera in County Londonderry. Other notable Irishmen who served in the regiment included VC-winner Captain Frederick Smith, and Edward Fox Fitzgerald, the son of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who served in the 52nd Light Infantry – thereby establishing a link between the regiment and the United Irishman (and helping to explain why, for many years, a lock of Lord Edward’s hair was displayed in the regimental museum!).
The regiment’s Irish heritage manifested itself in several ways. For instance, St Patrick Day Dinners were regular fixtures in the regimental calendar, while it is noticeable that, on the regimental stringed bugle horn badge, the strings of the bugle were looped into a very obvious shamrock.
By 1919, when the regiment was sent to Ireland to help deal with the worsening security situation, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry had become a predominantly English regiment, its recruits being drawn from the industrial districts of London, as well as Oxfordshire and, more especially, the more populous county of Buckinghamshire, There was, nevertheless, a feeling that the regiment was, in many ways, going ‘home’ – Ireland having been very familiar territory to both the 43rd and 52nd (or the 1st and 2nd battalions had they had become by that time). The events that were to take place over the next three years would do much to shatter that cosy illusion.
The Regiment Moves to Cork & Limerick
The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry had played no part in the Easter Rising or its aftermath, but the regiment was in Ireland in considerable strength by 1919, the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion having left England en route for Victoria Barracks, Cork, on 1st March 1919. At that time the 3rd Battalion comprised about 300 men, but as new recruits continued to arrive the size of the Battalion increased to 1,000 men. The 2nd Battalion travelled from Oxford to Cork on 30th July and, on arrival, it absorbed the 3rd Battalion, which was deemed to have been disembodied on 1st August 1919.
Members of the 1st Battalion joined the 52nd in Victoria Barracks in the following November, but in December, the 43rd were told that they would shortly be moving to the hutted camp at Ballyvonare, near Buttevant. The move was accomplished on 8th January 1920, although in the following June the 43rd were transferred from Ballyvonare to Limerick, where they occupied a number of different barracks, including Castle Barracks, Strand Barracks and ‘New Barracks Camp’. Thus, by the beginning of 1920, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was present in considerable strength in the disaffected south-western Province of Munster, the 1st Battalion being stationed in Limerick, while the 2nd Battalion was concentrated in Cork.
The men of the 2nd battalion found that their first few months spent in Ireland were surprisingly quiet, although on 5th September 1919 around sixty members of the regiment were called out to assist at the scene of a major fire at the Douglas Mills near Cork. It is gratifying to note that the owners of the premises sent £20 to the commanding officer for distribution among the soldiers in recognition of the help that they had provided – the money being sufficient to pay each man the not inconsiderable sum of 6s. 8d. each.
The 2nd Battalion carried out its first aggressive patrol in support of the RIC on 28th September 1919, following the shooting of two policemen at Berrings. The regimental Chronicle reported that three officers and 20 other ranks paraded at 16.45 hrs and proceeded in four lorries to King Street and Union Quay RIC Barracks, where they picked up 20 armed policemen. Travelling westwards to Ballincollig RIC Barracks, the convoy picked up four more RIC men but, by the time they reached Berrings it was too dark carry out any searches, and the party returned to Cork.
The operation was repeated on the following morning, and the following account from the regimental Chronicle is worth quoting in full, insofar as it illustrates the kind of work which would soon become all-too-familiar in the disaffected parts of Ireland:
‘We proceeded …. by Dripsey to Point 523 on Sheet 186 (Blarney) – a cross roads about half-mile South of Bally Cunningham; here the Police searched two houses and arrested one man, whom we took on to a house about a mile south of Barrabourin, which we searched but found nothing; this was the house of the man who did the shooting (a captain of the Sinn Fein).We then went on foot to a house by Kilmartin Upper which we searched and found a bandolier and water bottle. We arrested a man here and searched another house near by.
One man was seen running away and was chased by a constable and one of our men, but without success, as he had a good start. We then returned to the house we had previously searched and arrested one man in the farm and two men outside, who started to run but were caught. We then had dinners accompanied by the weepings of a dirty old woman, the mother of some of the prisoners.
We were here joined by a 3 ton lorry, which had relieved the broken-down one, and we proceeded with the prisoners to a house between 619 and 533 (on the same road coming back). This we raided but made no arrests, and the party proceeded to the cross roads previously visited, and so to Donoughmore. One house was raided on the way and various illegal documents confiscated. A public house was raided in Donoughmore, and the party then proceeded to a house just north of 3 Cross Roads, Point 438, about one mile south of Garraun North.
One house was raided on the way, and a man arrested who was in bed there. The father (a man of about 70) was considerably annoyed at his house being searched, and tried to fight: two constables and one of his daughters pushed him out with a good deal of effort, and his movements were controlled outside by our party. At the house described (point 436) a certain number of illegal documents and badges were found, the man being a captain of Sinn Fein. After this we returned to Ballincollig and dumped the prisoners there, leaving one light lorry and six police to bring them on to Cork. The party returned to Cork, dropped the police, and arrived in barracks at 17.30 hrs, where teas and dinners were provided’ (10).
A few weeks earlier, on Sunday 7th September, there had been an unfortunate incident in the nearby garrison town of Fermoy, when rebels attacked members of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry while they were on their way to the local Wesleyan chapel. Following this unprovoked attack a party of angry soldiers went on a rampage and smashed-up ‘between fifty and sixty shops’. It was subsequently decided that the KSLI would be moved from Fermoy to Cork, but this served only to inflame public opinion and, with shootings taking place in the streets of Cork, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was confined to barracks from 10th November until 18th November 1919, when the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry was sent away from Cork to the Curragh.
In the early months of 1920, the 1st and 2nd battalions were still stationed at Limerick and Cork respectively, although detachments had been sent out at various times to outlying towns and villages such as Ballincollig and Macroom, to the west of Cork, and Tulla in County Clare, about 20 miles due west from Limerick. Life settled down to a routine of patrols, searches and escort duties, while the men attempted to make themselves comfortable in a variety of premises, including isolated RIC barracks and dilapidated workhouses.
Patrols were carried out on foot, on bicycle or in motor lorries – the most characteristic vehicles in use at that time being Crossley tenders, which were fitted up with outward-facing seats and generally had a crew of one officer and six other ranks. These vehicles had no tailboards or windscreens, and the men travelling in the back of the lorry faced outwards with their Lee-Enfield rifles loaded and ready. Convoys were normally formed of three vehicles, with an interval of at least 200 yards between each lorry. The officer in charge was expected to travel in the rearmost vehicle, while the leading vehicle was equipped a Very pistol which was to be fired in the event of an ambush. As a further precaution against mines and roadside explosives, suspected rebels were sometimes handcuffed to the side of the leading vehicle so that they would take the brunt of any explosion.
At one time, road-cutting became so serious that the Royal Engineers supplied planks and large wooden sleepers shaved-down at each end, so that trenches and broken bridges could be safely negotiated. ‘Trees and walls built across the road were removed by the simple means of collecting every able-bodied man in the neighbourhood’ and making them clear the obstruction. On one occasion, officers of the 1st Battalion ordered their men to commandeer the male worshippers in a Roman Catholic church, but most of the congregation promptly disappeared, leaving a had and dirty job for just four Catholic civilians in their Sunday best clothes. This was, perhaps, not the best way to win friends and influence people.
Ambush at Oola
On 26th June 1920 the IRA scored achieved something of a propaganda victory when it captured Brigadier-General Lucas and Colonels Danford and Tyrrell, ‘of the Clonmel military area’ while they was on a fishing holiday at Castletownroche, near Fermoy. The General’s capture was described as follows in The Times on 28th June 1920:
‘The raiders, who had arrived in two motorcars, took possession of General Lucas’s car and set off with their prisoners in the direction of Cork. Soon afterwards Colonel Danford made a courageous but unsuccessful attempt to escape. The prisoners had not been bound in any way, and, seizing a moment when his captors’ eyes were not upon him, he jumped out and ran in a direction opposite to that in which the cars were travelling at a fairly high speed. There was an order to halt, and the republicans opened fire on Colonel Danford, who after a few rounds fell prostrate on the highway with serious wounds in the head and shoulder.
Observing his serious condition, the raiders took counsel and decided to liberate Colonel Tyrrell, so that he could attend to his wounded fellow-officer. The raiders left them on the roadside and drove away with General Lucas to an unknown destination, which in republican parlance means an improvised prison. Colonels Tyrrell and Danford were discovered some hours later and taken to the military hospital at Fermoy. Military and police are scouring the district, but at the tune of writing, no news is to hand of General Lucas or of his audacious captors’.
In the event, General Lucas was well-treated by his captors, who appear to have been led by Sean Moylan. However, on 31st July The Times was able to report that General Lucas had managed to remove the bars from the window of his room and effect an escape. Rain fell in torrents throughout the night and the general had great difficulty in making his way through the fields and hedges but, after further adventures, the intrepid escaper found his way to the safety of Pallas Green RIC Barracks. It was decided that he would be taken to Pallas, from where he could be given a lift on ‘the military mail motor from Limerick to Limerick Junction’. Thus, on 30th July 1920, wearing ‘civilian clothes and a soft hat’, General Lucas boarded a Crossley tender manned by members of the 43rd Light Infantry – the soldiers in the lorry being greatly surprised when they learned the identity of their passenger!
The lorry continued its journey but, at a point about half a mile on the Tipperary side of Oola, and about four miles to the north-west of Limerick Junction, its progress was arrested by a barricade of carts, ladders and a fallen tree. As the vehicle pulled up, a volley was fired by about fifty men who had been waiting in ambush. The soldiers immediately returned fire and, during the fighting, which continued for about half an hour, two soldiers were shot dead and three more wounded, one of them seriously. While the fight was in progress a second military lorry appeared, followed by six armed policemen from Oola. The ambushing party hastily retreated, and the dead and wounded were taken away in lorries, while the military parties proceeded to Tipperary.
It was, at first, thought that the ambush had been staged with the aim of recapturing General Lucas, but contemporary press reports reveal that there was a ‘strong rumour in Tipperary that the attackers were not aware that General Lucas was in the military lorry, and that the purpose of the attack was to secure the military mails’. It is interesting to note that John Lynch, a local man from Cappamore in County Limerick, had witnessed the entire incident, and on 31st July 1920The Times printed the following graphic account of the ambush at Oola:
‘AN EYE WITNESS’s STORY – I was coming to Tipperary this morning with a cartload of timber in company with my brother Tom. It was about half past nine, and we were about a quarter of a mile on the Tipperary side of Oola, when we heard shots in front of us. We proceeded on our way and a short distance farther on the wife of a farmer named David O’Donnell, ran out in a very excited state on to the road and, putting up her hands, shouted to us not to go any farther, for there was a raid on near Hewitt’s Gate. We proceeded on our way, however, and about 30 yards further on a policeman met us, putting up his hands and warning us to stop. We then left the horse and cart in the middle of the road and went in behind the hedge on the roadside. Looking through the hedge, we saw a motor-lorry some little distance down the road. About a dozen soldiers had got down from the lorry, and were replying with their rifles to shots which came from both sides of the road. Two soldiers lay motionless in the middle of the road, apparently dead. From behind a shed with a corrugated iron roof a heavy and continuous fusillade was directed on the soldiers. I could not say how many men were in the attacking party, but there appeared to be a good number.
When the fight had been in progress about 20 minutes or half an hour, a second motor lorry full of soldiers coming from Limerick raced up to the spot. Following them rushed five or six policemen, rifles in hand. The attackers then dispersed firing as they ran, and the military firing after them. When the fight was over the two dead soldiers, and two or three others, who appeared to be wounded, were placed in the lorry and the two lorries sent on to Tipperary’.
The regimental Chronicle subsequently reported that the two men killed in the Oola ambush had been 42797 Lance-Corporal G.B.Parker and 27862 Private Daniel Verey Bayliss of the 1st Battalion, while the injured included privates Snelling, Cornwall and Steer. In an obituary notice, The Chronicle recorded that:
‘Lance-Corporal Parker was the son of Mr and Mrs Parker of 24 Park Street, High Wycombe; he was only twenty years old at the time of his death, and had eighteen months service, having served with the 43rd in North Russia. Private Bayliss, who was the son of Mrs Bayliss of 7 George Street, St Clements, Oxford, had enlisted in the 43rd Band as a boy at the end of 1916, and was just eighteen when he was killed’..
Lance Corporal Parker was buried in High Wycombe Cemetery, while Private Bayliss was interred in Rose Hill Cemetery, Oxford.
Incident at Cratloe
At the end of May 1920, rumours began circulating to the effect that the 2nd Battalion were to be sent back to England in order that they could begin preparations for foreign service. The advance party left Cork in June, en route for Lichfield, and the move was complete by 1st July – the 2nd South Staffordshire Regiment being sent from Lichfield to take over at Cork. The officers of the 52nd no doubt left Ireland with mixed feelings, the situation in County Cork being ‘not as bad as the daily papers made out’. In fact, they considered that ‘Cork City was very well behaved, and no notice was taken of the Military, as the rebels were still concentrating on the Police’.
The next major incident involving members of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry took place on 18th November 1920, after an aeroplane had made a forced landing near Punches Quarry at Cratloe in County Clare. The regiment was asked to protect the machine during the night and a platoon from ‘C’ Company, 1st Battalion was, accordingly, sent out under 2nd Lieutenant M.H.Last.
When the party reached Cratloe they apparently set up camp near the aircraft and built themselves a large turf fire, unaware that a party of IRA men had decided to raid the site to see if they could capture the aeroplane’s machine gun. The attackers, led by Joe Clancy of the I.R.A.’s East Clare brigade, opened fire on the soldiers from an elevated position at about 17.30 hrs, 5373641 Private Alfred Spackman being killed, while 5373574 Private Maurice Robins was severely wounded. The attackers having been driven off, ‘C’ Company subsequently carried out a ‘round up’ of known republicans in the Cratloe area.
Private Spackman, who had enlisted in the Regiment in April 1920, was the son of Mrs Spackman of Twyford in Berkshire. Private Robins, who never recovered from his wounds, died in Fermoy Hospital on 2nd March 1921. The regimental Chronicle reported that he had ‘enlisted in the Regiment on 12th February 1920, being just over seventeen years of age. He had previously lived at Wexham, near Slough.
Official Reprisals
The situation in Ireland continued to deteriorate throughout the closing months of 1920, one of the most controversial ambushes carried out by the IRA at that time being the Kilmichael Ambush, in which sixteen members of the Auxiliary RIC were killed on a quite country road near Macroom. As a result of this incident, attitudes began to harden on both sides. In November 1920 the 1st Battalion officers in Limerick were ordered to live either in barracks or at Cruise’s Hotel, while in the following month Marshal Law was declared throughout the troubled counties of Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary. As an added precaution, officers were ordered to carry side arms and told never to go out alone. On 3rd February 1921 the IRA ambushed two police vehicles at a place called Dromkeen, on the road from Caherconlish to Pallas Green in County Limerick. Eleven policemen were killed in the Dromkeen Ambush, two of them were shot by the I.R.A. after capture.
The Dromkeen Ambush was particularly significant in that, on this occasion, the authorities sanctioned a policy of ‘official reprisals’. Accordingly, on 4th February 1921, the First Battalion Diary recorded that ‘six officers and 60 other ranks were engaged in burning houses in an official reprisal for a very serious ambush of police at Dromkeen’. As a result of this action about ten houses were burnt, all of these being the homes of known or suspected IRA men. This deeply controversial measure was, in effect, a reversion to the tactics that had been used against the Boers in South Africa – the idea being that the insurgents would be denied access to food and shelter. In response, the IRA started burning the country houses of prominent Irish Loyalists – particularly in the province of Munster, where the wanton destruction of Ireland’s artistic and architectural heritage was particularly severe.
As a corollary of its policy of reprisals and house-burning, the government introduced a programme of ‘great drives’ whereby large areas of open countryside were methodically searched for rebels. Between 5th and 10th June 1921, for example, members of the 17th Lancers, the 93rd Highlanders and the Auxiliary Division carried out a ‘Sinn Fein Drive’ in County Clare. Cottages in the designated search area were entered, each producing ‘its male or males to be handed over, at the end of the drive, to the Intelligence Officer’ – although it seems unlikely that these unfortunate people would actually have been rebels. At length, an RIC man at Feakle reported that Coolregh Bog, which was surrounded by broken, or ‘knocked’ bridges, was being used by the IRA as a hide-out:
‘The bog lay in a triangle formed by three roads, all of which had been ‘knocked’ at the angles or apices of the triangle. The 93rd Highlanders took the eastern, the Auxiliaries the northern angle, while the 43rd started at the southern, intending to drive NE. The plan was completely successful, the three companies arriving at their positions practically simultaneously, and by three different roads. At first the 43rd were completely baulked by a very broad river, which ran along the side of the bog. It seemed un-crossable, and yet the bog was well represented by turf-cutters, who on sight of the ‘Militthary’ immediately downed tools and started to make shift in case of music.
For a distance of a mile the 43rd walked up the side of the river until at last they found a narrow causeway leading across. The leading platoon crossed and deployed, facing practically due east, and moved forward. Sergeant Bristow topped a bank in front of him, and dropped down the other side and, being no light weight, fell through the roof of a dug-out. As a ferret bolts a rabbit, so did three Sinn Feiners bolt out and make away across the bog. The 43rd opened fire, the Shinners carried on, scuttling among the turf piles, making straight for the 93rd. Suddenly the music of Lewis guns rang out; they had done exactly as had been intended. Straight into the mouthpiece of the inhospitable little weapon did these beauties run.
The bog was driven, and every male taken, in all 250 odd. They could not get out, they were surrounded and helpless. Accordingly this little party was formed up and proceeded at a smart double to Feakle. It was a hot day, and Feakle was two and a half miles away, the road was uphill all the way, but not a single Hibernian fell out. At Feakle the police singled out five men, all of whom were on the black list for murder, and these were handcuffed and taken back to camp’.
In parenthesis, it may be pertinent to ask how the army was able to differentiate between rebel supporters and loyalists, and although captured documents and intelligence material among the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry archival collections suggest that a great deal was known about the organisation, methods and membership of the IRA, there remains a very strong suspicion that ordinary, working class Irish Catholics were regarded, without distinction, as rebel supporters. On the other hand the Protestants, who tended to belong to the upper and middle classes, were assumed to be staunch allies. An officer of the 43rd recalled that ‘many local friendships were formed’ – for instance ‘one very loyal old lady sent up a bottle of priceless old brown sherry for the officers and a bundle of books for the sentry to read’. Indeed, the officers admitted that the army and police were ‘wholeheartedly assisted by our friends the Irish Loyalists’;
‘For their hospitality and kindness we cannot thank them enough. Consisting as they did of people with everything to gain and nothing to lose by preserving an attitude of neutrality; in constant danger of seeing their houses burned and their motor cars purloined, even if they escaped actual physical violence; they continued to invite us to dances and tennis parties, and do everything possible for our entertainment. Their courage was undoubted, but for any influence they had on the opinions and actions of the population as whole (even their own employees) they might just as well have been living in another country. Indeed their absence would have made our task more easy. Their number and situation made the provision of any kind of protection extremely difficult. They were hostages in the hands of the enemy, a fact the Sinn Feiners were quick to realise’.
It should be added that, although most Roman Catholics in the south of Ireland were probably Home Rule supporters they did not necessarily condone the use of violence; for instance, the officers of the 1st Battalion were slightly perplexed by ‘one old priest’ who would walk into the Orderly Room in Limerick and talk ‘rapidly and painfully on the situation in general’. On one occasion he produced ‘a handful of raisins from his pocket’ and poured them onto the desks of the Commanding Officer and Adjutant.
Soldiers Murdered at Woodford
The first six months of 1921 were perhaps the worst period of the ‘Black & Tan’ rebellion, the IRA campaign being at its peak. The victims were, in many cases, policemen, although off-duty soldiers and Protestant Loyalists were also regarded as legitimate targets on the pretext that they were ‘spies’ or ‘traitors’. On 22nd February 1921 three members of the regiment, 5374617 Private H Morgan, 5374675, Private W.S.Walker and 5373002, Private David John Williams, were found murdered by rebels near Woodford in County Galway. They had been reported missing from Strand Barracks on 13th February, and nothing more was heard of them until their dead bodies were found by a farmer at Woodford. The IRA had placed the following message around the neck of one of their victims: ‘Spies. Tried by Court Martial and found Guilty. Let all others beware.’
Their bodies were brought into Limerick, and subsequently sent to England for burial. The regimental Chronicle subsequently reported that Private Morgan had enlisted into the Regiment on 23rd May 1919, having previously served in the Labour Corps during World War I. Private Walker, whose home was near Bicester, had re-enlisted into the Regiment after wartime service on 5th August 1919; he was twenty-three years of age at the time of his death. Private Williams was, similarly, a veteran of the Great War who had served for about fourteen years in the Gloucestershire Regiment and re-enlisted into the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 4th December 1919; he was thirty-three years old when he was killed.
On 11th April 1921 The Times reported that a bomb which had been thrown in the city of Limerick on Friday night near the John Street Police Barracks had killed an elderly man named Francis McMahon and wounded several other persons. Shots were also fired at an RIC patrol from a lane, and a head constable, two sergeants, and a constable were dangerously wounded. The military arrived soon afterwards and some arrests were made. On Friday two police constables stationed at Carrigdrohid, County Cork, obtained eight hours leave and spent the day in the neighbouring town of Macroom. On returning to their station in the afternoon they borrowed a horse and trap, but when they reached a place named Manchinaglass they were ambushed by about a dozen men, Constable Frederick Lord being instantly killed, although his companion was able to escape.
In response to the Limerick bomb attack and other outrages, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was again ordered to carry out official reprisals in Limerick, several rebel houses being burned on 9th April 1921, while ‘one hundred other ranks of the regiment furnished patrols and piquets for this area’. Local people still recall the ensuing destruction, the consensus of opinion being that the regiment had wreaked unnecessary havoc – although there is no doubt that the reprisal was officially-sanctioned.
It is unclear what opinions the rank-and-file may have harboured about the policy of official reprisals, but six officers of the 43rd Light Infantry resigned their commissions between 16th April and 19th July 1921. At least one of these individuals was an Irishman, who may (with good reason) have been worried about the safety of his family in County Cork, while another was Lieutenant W.T.Trengrouse, an officer of the 1st Battalion who, on Saturday 14th May 1921 was involved in an ambush while motoring between Glenstal and Newport in company with District Inspector Major Harry Biggs of the RIC, and Miss Winifred Barrington, the only daughter of Sir Charles and Lady Barrington of Glenstal Castle.
On reaching Coolboreen Bridge near Newport, in County Tipperary, the motor car was fired at by a party of armed men led by Sean Gaynor, Miss Barrington and the district inspector being killed, although Lieutenant Trengrouse managed to escape from the vehicle and run down the road. When it became clear that Miss Barrington was lying dead in the road, the young officer must have realised that his actions would be criticised, and it is probably no coincidence that he resigned shortly afterwards.
The Tulla Ambush
The next major incident involving members of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry occurred near Tulla in the early hours of 28th June 1921 when a patrol consisting of 22 year old Leutenant Richard Crawford Warren MC and eleven men was ambushed on their way back to Tulla Workhouse at about 2.00 am.
The patrol, which had been sent out to prevent the rebels from felling trees across the roads, was approaching Fortaine cross roads when a civilian suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. Lieutenant Warren went forward to speak to the impassive figure, but at that moment the men drew a revolver from his pocket and shot the officer in the stomach at more or less point blank range. The rebels immediately opened fire from both sides of the road, most of the fire coming from the right. Two more soldiers were wounded but, taking charge of the situation, Sergeant Thomas Swift rallied his men and mounted a spirited counter-attack, at which point the rebels fled from the scene. Meanwhile, it was clear that Lieutenant Warren had been severely injured, and he died of his wounds at 21.30 hrs.
Sergeant Swift was the unquestioned hero of this nocturnal ambush. Thomas Swift, a native of Southall in Middlesex, a recipient of the DCO, was already a highly-regarded NCO, who had survived brutal treatment at the hands of the Turks after the fall of Kut-al-Amara, but had nevertheless done much to raise the morale of his fellow-prisoners in Mesopotamia. On returning to Tulla, Sergeant Swift immediately compiled the following report of the Tulla Ambush:
‘I was sergeant-in-charge of the party returning from a laying-out party near Annagh-Neal,(?) on reaching the cross roads near Ballynahinch, a man came into the road, the party which was leading along the side of the road halted near the road bridge.
Lieutenant Warren, going out in the centre of the road, I heard someone speak, the next moment the rebel fired and I saw Lt. Warren fall. I ran up to Lt. Warren and fired two shots at the rebel as he ran up the road, then he disappeared over a wall, and then we were fired at from both sides of the road, most of the fire coming from our right.
I immediately put a burst of fire into the right, then getting my men through and extending, then on reaching the wall on the cross roads got over and was again fired on from the opposite wall, I got my party on the flank and fired down the wall with this the rebels retired’.
On 1st July, Lieutenant Warren’s body was placed on a gun carriage and escorted to Limerick railway station ‘by the whole Regiment and by representatives of the garrison and the RIC of Limerick and Tulla’. He was buried in Brookwood Cemetery on 5th July 1921. Lieutenant Warren, a former pupil of Gresham’s School in Norfolk, had been wounded twice during the Great War, and he had been awarded the Military Cross and bar for conspicuous gallantry during that conflict. Having survived the horrors of the Western Front, it was particularly tragic that his life should have ended on a quiet country road amid the beautiful countryside of County Clare.
On a footnote, it should perhaps be mentioned that Sergeant Swift was by no means anti-Irish. Indeed, he subsequently married Catherine Cronin at Limerick had three daughters – Kathleen, Barbara and Jean.
The Civil War Period
A 43rd officer later declared that ‘on looking back, June 1921 was the deciding month in the Irish War’. Martial law had been in force in the south and south-western counties for a period of six months and, towards the end of May, ‘it seemed that a condition of stalemate had been reached between the Crown Forces and the rebels’. Although rebel activity continued, the captures made by Crown Forces of militant rebels had increased, with the result that the IRA ‘Active Service Companies’ and ‘Flying Columns’ had become smaller and less well organized as the weeks went by.
The general feeling among the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers was that the rebels were on the verge of defeat. It was felt that, for once, ‘the Government were going to take a really strong hand’ and smash the rebels once and for all; in modern parlance, Lloyd George was about to order a ‘surge’ in Southern Ireland. In June 1921 the 2nd Battalion were ordered back to Ireland, an advance party of two officers and 20 other ranks reaching Tipperary on 27th June, while sixteen officers and 420 other ranks left Lichfield on 30th June and arrived at Queenstown in the early hours of 2nd July. As the rebels had started attacking troop trains and sabotaging the Irish railway system, the Battalion travelled from Queenstown to Tipperary on the Great Southern & Western Railway in two special trains, each of which was preceded by a pilot locomotive and escorted by an aeroplane.
It was envisaged that the 2nd Battalion would reinforce the Green Howards and the Lincolnshire Regiment, ‘A’ and ‘C’ companies being stationed in Tipperary while ‘B’ and ‘D’ companies would be based in Cashel and Fethard respectively. However, by mid-1921, it was clear that public opinion in Britain (and indeed throughout the entire English-speaking world) had become deeply divided over the question of Ireland. In particular, the Labour and Liberal parties had become so concerned at the activities of the Black & Tans that the British government was obliged to moderate its earlier position of outright opposition to Irish home rule.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was present in Dublin during the Irish Civil War, the 1st Battalion having moved from Limerick to Dublin in the early part of 1922, their new home being the North Dublin Union workhouse as the Curragh, Beggar’s Bush and most of the other former British army barracks had been handed over to the Free State in compliance with the terms of the treaty. This gloomy edifice provided a grandstand view of the attack on the Four Courts and the destruction of the Irish Public Records in the following June.
The long association between Southern Ireland and the 43rd and 52nd regiments was, however, coming to an end. It was clear that, by 1922, the IRA had been defeated, the Free Staters having driven the irregulars into hiding. Accordingly, the 2nd Battalion left Tipperary, en route for England, on 20th January 1922, while the 1st Battalion sailed from Dublin North Wall for the last time at 15.50 hrs on 14th September 1922. This was truly the end of an era.
Addendum
In addition to the eight members of the 43rd Light Infantry who were killed as a direct result of rebel activity, the 1st Battalion lost a small number of men as a result or road accidents or other mishaps, one of the most unfortunate incidents being that which involved 5373689 Lance-Corporal M.Hudson of ‘D’ Company, who was accidentally killed while on a bicycle patrol at Tulla on 12th June 1921. It appears that a routine patrol had been sent out from their base at the Workhouse to round up any suspected rebels or other suspicious characters who might be met with but, on returning through Tulla, a nervous sentry at the RIC Barracks assumed that the patrol was a gang of rebels and opened fire, killing Lance-Corporal Hudson. The dead man, a Londoner, had re-enlisted in the Regiment on 5th May 1920 after four years previous service.