Gunner Bernard Francis

Gunner Bernard Francis (aged 22) of the Royal Marine Artillery (Loughcarrig near East Ferry)

Date: 14 May 1921

Sources: CE, 16 May, 24 June 1921; II, 16 May 1921; FJ, 16 May 1921; RIC County Inspector’s Monthly Report, Cork City and East Riding, May 1921 (CO 904/115, TNA); Lieutenant-Colonel John M. McCarthy’s WS 883, Appendix, 11-12 (BMH); John Kelleher’s WS 1456, 26 (BMH); Daniel Cashman’s WS 1523, 12 (BMH); ‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 147; Sheehan (2011), 157; 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/marines/francis/francis.html; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/marines/marines.html (accessed 8 Aug. 2014).

Note: Francis and another British marine were abducted on 14 May 1921 by members of the Ballinacurra Company of the Midleton Battalion, shot dead at Loughcarrig near their barracks at East Ferry, and dumped in a local quarry. Former Midleton Volunteer Daniel Cashman recalled that he and his comrade Phillip Hyde had killed two British marines: ‘In the middle of May 1921 an order was received from brigade headquarters that all British military personnel in uniform should be shot at sight whether they were armed or unarmed. . . . In compliance with this order Phil Hyde and I met with two British marines in the neighbourhood of Ramhill, Ballinacurra. We fired on them, killing both.’ See Daniel Cashman’s WS 1523, 12 (BMH). Cashman and Hyde were members of E Company of the Fourth (Midleton) Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade. Cashman was also one of the first members of the Flying Column of the East Cork Brigade.