Tipperary Barracks 1878~1921
| 1919-22 | 52nd. Infantry Regiment | later known as 2nd. Battalion, The Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry |
The Tipperary Military Barracks, close to Tipperary Railway Station, was one of the most ornate to be built in Ireland during the British occupation. It was designed between 1872 & 1874, built between 1874 & 1878 and cost £25,000. Constructed of limestone, it featured high ceilings and many French windows giving a feeling of light and space to the interior; and causing those who occupied it to surmise that it would have been better suited to the hot climate of India or the Far East instead of the damp chilly climes of Ireland. It was lit by gas, and had state-of-the-art facilities for the troops and their families, including administration offices, armoury, magazine, stable, workshops, accommodation blocks, Officers’ Mess, Sergeants’ Mess, cookhouse, canteen, chapel, hospital, school, laundry, bath-house, latrines, band-room, guard room, detention barracks, stores, and water tower. The Barracks had an integral miniature rifle range, and a larger outdoor range at Ballyglass, Co. Tipperary. At the start of The Great War in 1914 the number of troops stationed in Tipperary Town rose above 4000 and rose as high as 10,000, as the Tipperary Barracks was used as a Posting Area to muster and train new drafts of troops destined for the war in France.
In addition to the facilities associated with the military functions of Tipperary Barracks, sporting and recreational facilities provided for the soldiers and their families included a fives court, a skittle alley, a sports green tennis court and a fully equipped gymnasium. During the WW1, Tipperary Barracks was the Headquarters of the 1st. Infantry Battalion, the 6th. & the 16th. (Irish) Infantry Brigades. Today, only the water-tower and some fragments of the ancillary buildings of the Tipperary Barracks complex remain, including the arch which was the entrance to the Officers’ Mess. Part of the main mess building is now a health and social welfare facility for the people of Tipperary.
In 1919 before the violence between the IRA and British forces in Ireland escalated, desertion by British soldiers was a fairly common occurrence. For example a battalion of Scottish soldiers stationed in Ennis had became particularly useful as a source of arms for the IRA in the area as they kept approaching republicans with offers to sell them rifles. On one occasion a Fianna Éireann scout called to the home of William McNamara one of the leading members of the 1st Battalion Mid Clare Brigade IRA, to report that he had met 2 Scottish soldiers who wanted to sell their rifles. McNamara met the 2 soldiers and bought their rifles and 100 rounds of ammunition for £8. The 2 soldiers said they planned to desert and go back to Scotland. McNamara got them civilian clothes and in turn the 2 soldiers traded him their boots, leggings and equipment. The IRA made transport arrangements for the pair but shortly afterwards they reappeared in Ennis looking for McNamara: “A few days later I was in the bar having a drink with Michael Kennedy, the 2 of them came in accompanied by 4 or 5 other soldiers. They at once recognised us and introduced us to their pals who, they said, were also anxious to desert.” According to McNamara many of them had some degree of sympathy for the idea of Irish independence or at least some loathing of policing duties in Ireland.: “They were a decent body of men and the vast majority of them did not relish the particular class of soldiering at which they were employed in Ireland. On pay nights, when a good number of them got a bit tipsy, they could be heard in the pubs in Ennis singing Irish rebel and Sinn Féin songs.”
Lance-Corporal George Bowles Parker 47297 Ox & Bucks LI
1900 Apr/Jun Born High Wycombe
1901 census living at 24, Park Street, High Wycombe – George aged 11 Months
1911 census at 24 Park St High Wycombe – George aged 10
He had had 18 months service, having served before re-enlisting with the 52nd in Germany.
30th July, 1920 . Died age 20 in the Lucas Ambush Son of Owen and Agnes Daisy Parker, of 24, Park St., High Wycombe. He was the motorcycle outrider to the lorry carrying the Military Mails and Gen Lucas. He was shot in the neck and died immediately
Lance Corporal Parker was buried in High Wycombe Cemetery
1920 Oct 8. Mrs Agness Parker receives £240 compensation for the death of her son
Private Daniel Verey Bayliss, 27862 Ox & Bucks LI
1902 Apr/Jun Born Headington, Oxfordshire
1911 census at 1 Crown St, Cowley Road, Oxford
1916 He enlisted in the 43rd Band as a boy. (Aged 14)
1920 Jul 30 Died age 18 in the Lucas Ambush. Son of William Verey Bayliss and Minnie Bayliss, of 8 Randolph St., Cowley Rd., Oxford.
Private Bayliss was interred in Rose Hill Cemetery, Oxford.
1920 Oct 8. Compensation court awards his mother £240 for the death of her son.
The Strand Barracks in Limerick
It later became a British Army Barracks during the 19th century, until it was handed over to the Free State Army. Amongst the last British Regiments to leave the Barracks were the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry 1st Battalion and the Royal Army Service Corps consisting of No. 1166 Motor Transport Company and Divisional Supply Column.
Private David John Williams, No. 5373002, a 33 year old ex-collier from Old Croft, Lydney. He was married and had 14 years service with the Gloster Regiment and had re-enlisted in the British Army on 4 December 1919. Private Williams was wounded twice in the Great War but was also a chronic deserter. He was absent for several periods one as long as 5 months in 1915 apparently due to the birth and illness of his daughter. He had been discharged from the British Army in 1917 but re-enlisted in 1919 because of he was unable to find other employment. His son was born in May 1920 which might possibly have acted as an incentive for him to desert. A member of ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry stationed at the Strand Barracks in Limerick City.
The Intelligence Officer in charge of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry’s was Lieutenant John Basil Jarvis. Lieutenant Jarvis known in the British Army as Joe was born 31st May 1900 the youngest son of Arthur Walter Jarvis Esq of Hampstead and Mrs Jarvis (Nee – Matthews). He was educated at Marlborough and the Royal Military College Sandhurst commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 16th July 1919. Sent to Ireland in September 1919 and was posted as an intelligence officer with the 52nd Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry initially in Cork but the regiment was redeployed at Limerick in 1920. Jarvis was stationed at the Strand Barracks from where he directed the regiments intelligence work in counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. Jarvis seems to have been a somewhat eccentric character, his intelligence dossier is prefaced with sea shanty that would not be out of place in the book “Treasure Island” and he lists himself amongst the IRA suspects in his intelligence dossier as “JARVIS, John Basil, Strand Barrack’s Limerick ‘a great ruffian capable of doing anybody or anything, rides an antiquated Douglas motor cycle.’ ”
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 16 members of the Auxiliary Royal Irish Constabulary 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 2 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, 2 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 ‘6 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 10 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.
L/Cpl George B Parker 