RIC Temporary Constable Arthur Frederick Poole

RIC Temporary Constable Arthur Frederick Poole (aged 21) from Kings Cross, London (Kilmichael ambush)

Date of incident: 28 Nov. 1920

Sources: CE, 30 Nov., 1, 3 Dec. 1920; II, 30 Nov. 1920; CCE, 4 Dec. 1920; Military Inquests, WO 35/152/1 (TNA); Patrick O’Brien’s WS 812, 14-17 (BMH); Timothy Keohane’s WS 1295, 5-7 (BMH); Edward Young’s WS 1402, 13-16 (BMH); Barry (1949, 1989), 36-51; Deasy (1973), 169-76; Hart (1998), 21-38; Abbott (2000), 156-63; Kautt (2010), 99-118; Leeson (2011), 101, 129; Sheehan (2011), 14, 30, 121, 146; Morrison (2012), 160-72; Townshend (2013), 210-15; Murphy (2014), 65-156; irishmedals.org (accessed 28 July 2014); http://www.theauxiliaries.com/men-alphabetical/men-p-q/poole/poole.html (27 Sept. 2015); http://theauxiliaries.com/companies/c-coy/c-coy.html (accessed 28 April 2016). 

Note: A native of London, Poole was a temporary constable (Black and Tan) employed as a driver for the Auxiliary patrol ambushed at Kilmichael. His body was found with those killed from the first tender (close together), of which he was presumably the driver. Evidence from the military court of inquiry suggests that he died from four bullet wounds to the neck and shoulder; he had also suffered extensive depressed fractures in the bones of the face and head caused by a heavy blunt instrument after death. This examination of his injuries supports the contention that the first tender was stopped by gunfire from an IRA marksman in the first instance (probably Sonny Dave Crowley), but the fractures may have been a consequence of a subsequent grenade explosion. See Murphy (2014), 72, 152-53, 193, 203. Poole had only two months of service with the ADRIC. He had previously been a motor fitter and a soldier. During the Great War he had served in the Royal Air Force. He and his four brothers had all come through the war unscathed. He was interred in Kensal Rise Cemetery in London. See Abbott (2000), 162.