Civilian Arthur J. Harrison

Civilian Arthur J. Harrison (aged 29) from Lancashire (Coachford)

Date of incident: 30 April 1921 (ex-RIC constable kidnapped, executed, and disappeared by IRA)

Sources: CE, 14 May 1921; British Forces Missing (Military Archives, A/0909); IRA Executions in 1921 (Collins Papers, A/0649, Military Archives); Letter to G. C.  Whiskard (Dominions Office), April 1926 (JUS/H/257/13, NAI); Abbott (2000), 312-13.

Note: Harrison was travelling from Carrigadrohid to Coachford railway station in a motor bread van. He was on his way home since he had completed his service. He was kidnapped near Coachford railway station on the afternoon of 30 April 1921 and later killed. See British Forces Missing (Military Archives, A/0909); CE, 14 May 1921. Owing to his wife’s ill health, he ‘had resigned on the day that he was kidnapped’. He had reportedly been responsible for a large number of arrests of suspected Volunteers in the district and was shot outside Coachford village. Prior to his short service with the RIC (he had joined on 24 September 1920), ex-Constable Harrison had been a soldier and a labourer. See Abbott (2000), 312-13. By 1926 he was still among those for whom all enquiries and efforts to trace their remains had proven fruitless. See Letter to G. C.  Whiskard (Dominions Office), April 1926 (JUS/H/257/13, NAI).