Private Richard Edward Larter

Private Richard Edward Larter (aged 19) of the 1st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (near Buttevant)

Date of incident: 10 July 1921

Sources: CE, 12, 13 July 1921; II, 12 July 1921; FJ, 12 July 1921; CWN, 16 July 1921; Thomas Barry’s WS 430, 28 (BMH); William C. Regan’s WS 1069, 13 (BMH); ‘The Irish Rebelllion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 151; Ó Ruairc (2016), 175-76, 184-85, 306, 312; 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/larter/larter.html (accessed 8 Aug. 2014).

Note: While Larter and a fellow soldier were walking along a road near Doneraile on a Sunday evening at about 7 o’clock on 10 July 1921, they came under fire from members of the Castletownroche Battalion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade. The two soldiers were returning to the great Ballyvonare Military Camp in the Buttevant district after a Sunday outing to Doneraile. Larter, who was unarmed, was mortally wounded while his comrade somehow escaped. Former Volunteer William C. Regan, who had organised the Doneraile Company of the Castletownroche Battalion towards the end of 1919 and who had been battalion O/C at the Truce, later recalled the incident somewhat differently: ‘On the same date [10 July 1921] a British soldier was captured in the Doneraile area and executed in the vicinity of Ballyvonaire Camp.’ See William C. Regan’s WS 1069, 13 (BMH). Larter was buried in Swainsthorpe Churchyard near Norwich.