National Army Soldier John Harford

National Army Soldier John Harford (aged about 17) of 77 St Peter’s Terrace, Howth, Co. Dublin (Grand Parade/South Mall, Cork city)

Date of incident: 5 Oct. 1922

Sources: CE, 6 Oct. 1922; Evening Herald, 6 Oct. 1922; FJ, 7 Oct. 1922; II, 7 Oct. 1922; MSPC/2D405 (Military Archives). 

Note: Private John Harford was killed in a motor-vehicle accident in Cork city. He was returning on the evening of 5 September 1922 from Clonakilty to Victoria Barracks as part of an escort with a load of military stores. He was traveling along the Grand Parade in a military vehicle of an open type and sitting in the back on a metal drum or cask. While the vehicle was rounding the corner at the South Mall, he was thrown heavily to the ground, fractured his skull, and ‘was killed almost instantly’. A number of other soldiers who were also thrown from the vehicle luckily escaped with only minor injuries. Harford, ‘who was extremely popular’, belonged to H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Dublin Brigade of the National Army, and ‘was recognised as one of their most expert gunners’. See CE, 6 Oct. 1922. In civilian life John Harford had been a merchant sailor. His mother Ellen Harford was awarded a gratuity of £100 under the Army Pensions Act of 1923. See MSPC/2D405 (Military Archives). 

John Harford was in 1911 one of the seven living children (nine born) of the general labourer Nicholas Harford and his wife Ellen. Six of their children (four daughters and two sons) co-resided with them in that year at house 274 in the town of Howth. John Harford (then aged 6) was the younger of the two sons living at home.