N Company ADRIC Trim Meath

N Coy ADRIC Meath

After 1 Oct 1921 when RHW Ballintine became Intelligence Officer. 60 Auxiliaries in photo. Named in this file. All 11 Section Leaders inc Transport and CQM

Owins is the man in uniform 3rd left standing, he only served in N Coy. Blain is sitting, second right

Based originally in Dublin from its birth in Jan 3 1921, it moved to 1 Feb 1921 to Trim Industrial School where it stayed until demobilisation in Jan 1922. The bulk of N Coy men joined from 3rd Jan 1921 to 19 Jan 1921. List of men with dates of joining. The registers enable us to see that

Company Commanders
11 Jan 1921 to 12 Feb 1921 A H Daniel Coy Commander. He was an an unallocated DI1 from 27 Dec 1920 to his appointment to command N Coy on 11 Jan 1921, but I think he was effectively the Coy Commander from the earlier date)
12 Feb 1921 to Jan 1922 HS Barber Company Commander and he appears to have held the position until demobilisation
2nd in Command
10 Nov 1920 to 10 Dec 1920 R Mountford Promoted DI2, until he reverts to DI3 in N Coy. He was later court martialed and gaoled for his part in Trim Looting. This was before N Coy had personnel, so the ADRIC must have decided against him for some reason.
7 Jan 1921 to 8 Feb 1921 RD Utting Promoted DI2 until he was posted to Depot Coy and is permitted to resign (he later re-joins)
10 Feb 1921 to 24 May 1921 H Bannerman DI2 until he went to R Coy as Coy Commander
4 Jun 1921 to Jan 1922 RD Utting returns to N Coy as DI2 and appears to hold the position until demobilisation of ADRIC

1921 Jan. The men for N Coy were recruited between 3 and 19 Jan 1921. A H Daniel was Coy Commander, and RD Utting as 2nd in Command

1921 Jan 31. Inquest on death of Mrs Freeman in Barlow Terrace Raid. A detachment of N Coy carries out this raid.

1921 Feb 1. Freemans reports that 2 Auxiliaries arrived and immediately took over Trim Industrial School.. The children were moved to the Workhouse and ADRIC guards were immediately posted. 30 Auxiliaries arrived that day and more a few days later

1921 Feb 8 Leggatt AF wounded at Trim

1921 Feb 9. Trim looting affair took place. A large Auxiliary party took part in a raid on a grocer at Balbradagh, Trim, Co. Meath on the night of 9 February 1921. The police were searching for IRA ammunition, but Mr. and Mrs. Richard Chandler were Unionists. During the search, the Auxiliaries ransacked the store and began stealing from both the store and the living quarters above. They are also said to have mistreated Mrs. Chandler. The Chandlers claimed damages of £325, and 5 members of the raiding party came forward and reported the incident to Crozier. Crozier went to Trim and interrogated a number of Auxiliaries. 25 men (including 2 Section Leaders) were dismissed as "unsuitable for the RIC" . He held another five over under arrest for court martial (they were in fact convicted in Jun along with some extra men charged as a result of further inquiry).

Lt.-Gen.Tudor reinstated the 25 dismissed men because he was ‘unsatisfied’ by their treatment by Crozier, and it was over this action that Crozier resigned. The men dismissed were reinstated to O Coy on 16 Feb, and then "washed" through the books of other companies before reaching their final destination company of R Coy on 14 May. Of these men only 4 were tried by GCM, and only one of these 3 was convicted. A further 1 of them deserted and another never took up Tudor's offer of reinstatement.. So 22 men ended up as a group in R Coy, effectively forming one complete Platoon there.

The interesting thing is what happened next. The British appear to have an enquiry that reported on Apr 22, as a result of which most of the dismissed men were removed from suspension and reintegrated into ADRIC. However on this date, 22 Apr, men who had not previously been suspended were then suspended. Between men on suspension since 12 Feb and men added on 22 Apr 1921, the result was that

The Coy Commander A H Daniel was immediately removed from command by Crozier. He resigned from ADRIC in 5 Apr 1921. Crozier said Daniel was not in Trim that night, but on duty with the Divisional Commander. However witnesses at the trial said he was in barracks that night
Who was the 2nd in Command on the night is difficult to ascertain. RD Utting was 2nd in Command till 9th Feb (when he was permitted to resign, and rejoined 6 weeks later as a T/Cadet) and H Bannerman from 10th Feb (he held this position till 24 May, when he was promoted to DI1). I suspect RD Utting was in Trim on the night of 9th Feb and was removed on paper immediately for the sake of expediency by Crozier.
The numbers indicate that only one section was involved, under S/Leader: Richardson A, and that 8 T/Cadets in his section were court martialed, and of these 3 were convicted. It was deemed that officers had to carry the responsibility for controlling their men
5 N Coy officers put under arrest by Crozier were later found guilty of looting by GCM. Of these Platoon Commander: Mountford R and Platoon Commander: Caudell CHJ were immediately arrested. I therefore suspect that they were both on the raid. The other two DI3s only suspended on 22 Apr, both were court martialed, Intelligence Officer: JDle Grove was convicted and Platoon Commander Clancy S was cleared
Of 10 Section Leaders, 3 were initially under suspicion. Richardson A was arrested and eventually convicted. Treasure FL , Bird GWH were "dismissed unsuitable" on 15 Feb and then taken back and had their suspensions removed on 22 Apr.The evidence therefore is that it was Richardson's section which was at the heart of the looting. And that the other two sections under Treasure and Bird were on the patrol that night.
Of the remaining 7 Section Leaders Eddowes CFB was later suspended and convicted on 7 Jun, Davies CE , Cox RB and Tarrant HP were later suspended, tried and cleared on 3 Jun, LVHughes reverted to T/Cadet on 6 Jun, and the other two Section Leaders Harrison H and Scoffield HE were never suspended or tried
3 men suspended in Feb and Apr were tried by GCM in Jun and found guilty Taylor FLW , Spencer T, Mylam W
5 men were tried by GCM in Jun and found not guilty Meredith AC , Drysdale SA , Brayshay WL , Smith MC , Johnstone NStC
Reports in the newspapers said that 31 men were on the raid and that 5 had given information to Crozier about what had happened, and these men were "in fear of their lives"
It is difficult to be sure who the 5 men were that supplied Crozier with evidence, but the circumstantial evidence points to Poe AP (permitted to resign 22 Feb), HE Scoffield (posted to F Coy 22 Feb) McCartney JRF (posted to A Coy 14 Feb)

The 5 senior men convicted were

Platoon Commander: Caudell CHJ convicted by General Court Martial 6 Jun 1921 and sentenced to 12 month in prison
Intelligence Officer: JDle Grove convicted by General Court Martial on 7 Jun 1921 and sentenced to 12 months. . He was not actually suspended until 22 Apr 1922
Platoon Commander: Mountford R Convicted by General Court Martial - sentenced to 12 months.
S/Leader Eddowes CFB convicted by General Court Martial. Sentenced to 6 months. He was S/L i/c transport
S/Leader: Richardson A,convicted by General Court Martial. 12 months Hard Labour, remitted 26 Sep 1921 by GOC Ireland

Plus a number of Temp Cadets

Spencer T,convicted by General Court Martial on 7 Jun 1922. 12 months hard labour
Taylor FLW convicted by General Court Martial on 7 Jun 1922.
Mylam W was court martialed and dismissed on 6 Jun 1921. He was not actually suspended until 22 Apr 1922. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison
Johnstone NStC was put on suspension on 22 Apr, and not removed until he was permitted to resign on 16 Jul 1921

There appears to have been a review of some sort on 22 April, as the original "unsuitable" men were taken off suspension, and a further group of 4 put on suspension for the first time JDle Grove, S Clancy, W Mylam, NStC Johnstone, HP Tarrant. Of these 5 new names 4 were convicted, with only S Clancy escaping punishment

1921 Feb 10 The date I think is to allow no break in their service, the men appear to haveonly actually been back in Ireland on 16 Feb. The Platoon sized group of 19 "reinstated" Trim Looting Incident Cadets were posted to in O Coy. They remained on the books of O Coy until 5 March when they were moved to P Coy, but were still suspended during most of this time (they were taken off suspension on Apr 22 and eventually went to R Coy on May 14)

1921 Feb 12. Lt S Barber posted to N Coy as Company Commander. A H Daniel was posted back to Depot (effective 19 Feb 1921). Daniel "resigned at his own request" on 5 Apr 1921

1921 Feb 25 A T/Cadet at Trim seriously injured by accidental discharge of a revolver. VR Scott seems to have committed suicide.

1921 Apr. N Company, or maybe sections of it, transferred to Dublin from Trim

1921 Jun 22. N Coy supplied a Guard of Honour at opening of Ulster Parliament under DI3 RB Parker

1922 Jan 14. From the date of discharge of N Coy men, this was when N Coy was disbanded.

Auxiliary Companies