Bandsman Private Albert Edward Whitear

Bandsman Private Albert Edward Whitear (aged 20) of the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (Glanmire Road, Cork city)

Date of incident: 28 Feb. 1921

Sources: CE, 1, 2, 3, 30 March 1921; CC, 2, 18 March 1921; Nenagh Guardian, 5 March 1921; II, 30 March 1921; Peter Kearney’s WS 444, 12-13 (BMH); Denis Dwyer’s WS 713, 10 (BMH); Denis Collins’s WS 827, 18-20 (BMH); Seán Healy’s WS 1479, 60 (BMH); Michael Murphy’s WS 1547, 37-38 (BMH); Jerome Coughlan’s WS 1568, 11 (BMH); Michael J. Crowley’s WS 1603, 17 (BMH); Stephen Foley’s WS 1669, 9-10 (BMH); William Barry’s WS 1708, 10 (BMH); ‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 87, 143; Borgonovo (2007), 88; irishmedals.org (accessed 28 July 2014); Commonwealth War Graves Commission; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/list-1921.html; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/cork-street-feb-21/Cork-streets.html; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/cork-street-feb-21/whitear/whitear.html (accessed 8 Aug. 2014); http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsgalleries/mom/objectfocus/razor (17 Sept. 2015).  

Note: The execution of the five Dripsey-ambush prisoners earlier in the day on 28 February 1921 led to vicious retaliation by the IRA: ‘That evening, IRA gunmen attacked off-duty British soldiers throughout the city. They killed six unarmed soldiers and wounded ten more, including a number walking with local girls in the city’s by-lanes.’ See Borgonovo (2007), 88.

A soldier witness at one of the subsequent courts of military inquiry testified about the death of ‘Bert’ Whiteur [sic]: ‘On the evening in question after hearing shots fired, I went to Empress Place, where I knew a young woman whom I knew to be Ed. Whiteur’s friend. She said to me: “Bert has gone.” I said: “Gone where?” and she replied: “They have taken him away and shot him.” She told me it had occurred up Lovers’ Lane. She then took me to the spot where she had left Ed. Whiteur. . . . A male servant came out of a private house close by and told me they had a wounded soldier inside. I entered the house with a stretcher. The two girls accompanied me and found Ed. Whiteur lying on the ground with a pillow under his head. The people in the house had done what they could for him. All Whiteur said to me was: “They have got me.”’ He died shortly afterwards. See CE, 30 March 1921. Whitear was buried in the Gap Road Cemetery at Wimbledon in south-west London.