Lurking in the files in the archive at The Tank Museum at Bovington, England, are the records of No 5 Armoured Car Company (ACC). This had been 17th (Armoured Car) Battalion, Tank Corps previously but with post war demobilization and reorganisation it became a company instead of a battalion. It remained based at Marlborough (now McKee) Barracks in Dublin, with some sections dotted around Ireland.
There are a number of interesting items re numbers and types of vehicles, the units involvement at Belleek and Pettigo etc.
One item that caught my attention was a report regarding an attack on one of the armoured cars while it was collecting soldiers pay from a bank in the Phibsborough area of Dublin. Written by the Second in Command, Major Vyvyan Pope, it outlined the events of the ambush, the actions of the crew and the attackers, and the shooting of one of the attackers. The report was dated 14th October 1922, ie after the Truce and before the December 1922 departure of No 5 ACC to Belfast.
However, the general write up of the units activities made it look like the event was on 14th October 1920, the same day that Sean Treacy was killed in Dublin in an action that involved an Austin armoured car but this wasn't in Phibsborough (the diary of No 5 ACC makes no mention of the action involving Sean Treacy).
It appears that the ambush that Pope's report relates to was in 1920 so the date on his report is a typing error. The Rolls-Royce armoured cars were not delivered to No 5 ACC until January 1921 onwards and Pope's car was likely an Austin armoured car.
The ambush gets a mention in Ronald Lewin's "Man of Armour" book about the life and career of Pope, as well as two publications looking at casualties in Ireland during the War of Independence.
The Irish Volunteer killed in the ambush was William (aka Liam) O'Connell of D Company,1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade.
His family house in Co Cork appears to have been used during the kidnap and detention of General Lucas.
O'Connell was buried in the family plot at Glantane, Co Cork. A century later, a plaque to William O'Connell was unveiled in October 2020.
Pope identified Pte Scatchard (1898-1979), a chauffeur in civilian life, as the soldier who shot O'Connell.
After the incident, Pope was sent to England on leave for a sort while before he returned to Ireland and took charge of the armoured cars of No 5 ACC that operated in Munster. The photographs of General Peter Strickland, General in Charge of British troops in Munster and over to Wexford, hosted by the Imperial War Museum contain a number of Rolls-Royce armoured cars and these are probably from the section commanded by Pope. As Pope had only one arm, it should be easy to see if he appears in any of the photographs but I've not spotted any yet.
Pope served through the interwar period and on to France in 1940. He was killed in an air crash in October 1941 while taking charge of XXX Corps in the Western Desert.
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