1920-38

Private Ernest Francis Barlow

Private Ernest Francis Barlow (aged 26) of the 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment (Geata Bán on Ballyvourney/Macroom road)

Date of incident: 20 July 1920

Sources: Death Certificate, 1 Aug. 1920 (Cork No. 1 Urban); CC, 22 July 1920; CE, 24 July, 3 Aug. 1920; II, 3 Aug. 1920; CWN, 7 Aug. 1920; Michael O’Sullivan’s WS 793, 9-10 (BMH); Daniel Harrington’s WS 1532, 7-8 (BMH); ‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 136; irishmedals.org (accessed 28 July 2014); Commonwealth War Graves Commission;

http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/list-1921.htm; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/manchesters-macroom/barlow/barlow.htmlhttp://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/manchesters-macroom/macroom-manchesters.html (accessed 1 Aug. 2014); http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsgalleries/mom/objectfocus/razor (17 Sept. 2015). 

Note: Barlow died on 1 August 1920 in the Cork Central Military Hospital of wounds received in the same IRA ambush of a British Crossley tender near Ballyvourney in which Captain Airey had been killed. See the previous note. According to one account, Barlow’s spine was fatally damaged when a barrel of petrol fell on him during the deadly encounter with the IRA. See II, 3 Aug. 1920. But his death certificate indicates that he died from a gunshot wound in the leg and from septicaemia. See Death Certificate, 1 Aug. 1920 (Cork No. 1 Urban). A British account of casualties indicated that one officer had been killed and four soldiers of ordinary rank wounded in the encounter. Private Barlow was buried in the Church of England church at Crompton (or Shaw and Crompton), a town within the metropolitan borough of Oldham in the greater Manchester area. 

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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