RIC, Black and Tans, Auxiliaries

The best site and forum around for information regarding the Royal Irish Constabulary (including the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries) is run by Peter "McRIC" :

http://www.royalirishconstabulary.com/

http://irishconstabulary.com/

The Royal Irish Constabulary was an armed police force that operated through most of Ireland. The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) operated in Dublin (though the RIC had a depot in Phoenix Park) and were unarmed generally. G Division of the DMP were plain clothed and were an intelligence operation.

The Black and Tans were elements of the standard RIC that were recruited from outside Ireland to make up for the loss of regular RIC members through resignations, wounding and killed. They were generally ex-servicemen who had fought in the Great War. They were not recruited from British jails; this is a myth. Many were in fact Irish Catholics. They were integrated with the standard RIC but did not receive the same training or discipline.

The Auxiliary Division Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC - or Auxiliaries) were a separate unit within the RIC that operated in companies around Ireland. Generally these were ex-officers and many were highly decorated.

It was (and still is) common to call Black and Tans as Auxiliaries and vice versa. Generally, Auxiliaries operated as independent groups. Black and Tans operated by and large with ordinary RIC. Either way, they operated very differently to the RIC and in many instances, operated outside of the law that they were supposed to uphold.

http://www.cairogang.com/

At the end of the War of Independence, many Auxiliaries went to Palestine to continue their brand of police work. Many RIC were assisted to emigrate to other parts of the British Empire.

Book on the subject include :

Tudor Toughs

RIC List

Black and Tans by Leeson

Black and Tans by Bennett

Clive Wilson Warman

Clive Wilson Warman was born in the USA, 30th May 1892. He grew up to be a civil engineer but at the outbreak of World War One he appears to have signed up for the Canadian infantry (going on biographical information here as no records found to confirm this yet). After being wounded in France, he's transferred to a motor transport unit and spends time in Dublin. Again, biographical information suggests that he was there at the time of the Easter Rising. No information about what he did there but he would have been involved in the suppression in some form. Possibly the only American on the British side to take part?

He went back to England where he qualified as a pilot and joined the Royal Flying Corps. After a time as an instructor he was posted to France once more. Flying SPAD aircraft he appears to have claimed 12 enemy craft shot down and to have been awarded the DSO and Military Cross as well as a Mention in Dispatches.

After the war he remained in the Air Force (some books claim he was in the Canadian Air Force while his gravestone and CWGC entry shows Royal Air Force).

In May 1919 he died as a result of his aircraft crashing into the sewage farm in Edmonton, North London. One book states that he crashed in Edmonton, Canada but his death is registered in Edmonton, Middlesex, UK and he is buried in the UK.

Clive Warman is supposed to have enlisted with Princess Patricia's Regiment.No information about him on their excellent website. He does get a mention in a letter from Canadian flyer Norwood MacLeod to his father back in Canada.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

http://www.wwiaviation.com/aces/ace_Warman.html

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/warman.php

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1918/1918%20-%200424.html

SPAD VII Aces of WW1

American Aces of WW1

2nd Lt 1st April 1917

26th September 1917

26th September 1917 2nd entry

8th January 1918

8th January 1918 2nd entry

Findagrave.com

Aerodromes in Ireland in WW1 and just after

I've had a bit of a delve into records relating to aerodromes/airfields in Ireland during WW1 and after on the Great War Forum, Boards.ie etc and this is a jotting to pull together various threads.

The following website has a basic list of airfields in Ireland and lists some that are of interest :

http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/UK_Airfield_Catalogue/Airfields_Ireland.htm

The TDS note for some of the old RAF stations stands for Training Depot Station.

19 TDS Curragh
22 TDS Gormanston
23 TDS Baldonnel
24 TDS Collinstown
25 TDS Tallaght

RAF Tallaght was used as a demob centre after the war. 2nd Lt William Kretmar (Kretzshmar) died at RAF Tallaght in 1919 with 141 Squadron. Members of the WRAF were stationed at Tallaght.

RAF Baldonnel closed down in 1922. Flying Officer Perry was killed there in February 1922 taking off to fly to England. Have yet to identify the airman who died with him.

RAF Oranmore. A hangar was used for the Pavilion Ballroom in 1924.

Major Chads was killed when an aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed. The pilot was from the RAF unit at Castlebar.

Arthur Vere Bettington appears to have had command at RAF Baldonnel at some point.

2 Squadron (Fermoy and Oranmore 1920-22)

4 Squadron (Aldergrove and Baldonnel)

100 Squadron ( Baldonnel )

106 Squadron (Fermoy 1919)

Alcock and Brown flight June 1919

IRA Ambush of RAF Personnel

Former RAF man James Gleave. A number of ex-RAF personnel appear to have joined the Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish Constabulary, several killed at an ambush at Macroom.

2nd Lt T F Morris, 25 TDS at RAF Tallaght

2nd Lt Douglas Watts, 23 TDS at RAF Baldonnel

2nd Lt's Norris and Camm, 22 TDS died in at RAF Gormanstown. CWGC for Norris and Camm. There is a photo of Percy Camm on the Burnley website.

Lt Norman Mellor, 25 TDS at RAF Tallaght, died on the RMS Leinster

AM3 Murphy

William Sholto Douglas, RFC

Air Commodore Bonham-Carter

Air Commodore Pryor


Malahide Castle was a RNAS airship sub-station and some of the anchor points are still visible. Part of the roll was anti-submarine work with units based in Wales.

An ebay listing suggested that Captain David Campbell MC was involved in the later development of Baldonnel for the Irish Free State. Have purchased a copy of Campbell's book "Forward the Rifles. The War Diary of an Irish Soldier 1914-1918"

RFC Airmen buried in the Curragh, 1916 - James Amos and Benjamin Fitton. RAF airman buried in the Curragh in 1919 - George Carter

An American born RFC/RAF man listed as being in Dublin at the time of the Easter Rising :

WARMAN, 2nd Lieutenant Clive Wilson