RIC Constable Frederick W. Perrier

RIC Constable Frederick W. Perrier (aged 34) from Hampshire (Bandon)

Date of incident: 23 Feb. 1921

Sources: CE, 25, 26 Feb. 1921; Weekly Summary of Outrages against the Police (CO 904/148-50, TNA); Military Inquests, WO 35/157A/63 (TNA); Michael J. Crowley’s WS 1603, 15-16 (BMH); Daniel Canty’s WS 1619, 25 (BMH); Barry (1949, 1989), 103-4; Abbott (2000), 202-3; ‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 143; Kingston (2013), 65-66.

Note: A group of RIC men leaving the cinema in Bandon were attacked by members of the Flying Column of the West Cork Brigade under Tom Barry who had entered the town shortly after 8 p.m. on 23 February 1921. The original intention had been to ambush a military patrol of the Essex Regiment, but on their way to the ambush positions Barry and another Volunteer encountered two policemen—Frederick Perrier and Constable Kearns. Perrier sought safety in a nearby house, but Barry followed him into it and killed him at point-blank range. In this encounter Constable Kearns was seriously wounded, ‘with his condition regarded as hopeless’. Other members of the Flying Column went into the suburbs of Bandon and kidnapped two soldiers and two ‘wireless Naval men’ whom they found walking there. They later killed the two soldiers but released the two Navy men. ‘Royal Navy personnel had been posted into the Cork area from December 1920 to provide wireless communications between the different garrisons in the area.’ Constable Perrier had only five months service with the RIC; he had previously been a soldier and a handyman. See Abbott (2000), 202-3.