100 years of an Irish mutiny and an execution in Dagshai
| Chandigarh |
Up to date: November 1, 2020 10:21:06 pm
Connaught Rangers barracks at Jalandhar the place the mutiny began in June 1920.
(Photograph courtesy: www.independentleft.ie)
IT WAS a chilly wintry weather morning on November 2, 1920, that Personal James Daly of the first Battalion of The Connaught Rangers used to be introduced out of the guard room in Dagshai jail and shot lifeless within the rear compound by way of a firing squad.
Daly stays the closing soldier of the British Military to were shot lifeless for mutiny.
It used to be an Irish mutiny which came about in Jalandhar and Solan 100 years in the past in make stronger of the Irish freedom motion.
The Connaught Rangers
The Connaught Rangers had been raised throughout the British Military reforms of 1881. The Nationwide Military Museum (NAM) of United Kingdom (UK) states that the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) merged with the 94th Regiment of the Foot to shape a brand new two-battalion unit. This new unit took its identify from the 88th Foot, which is historically recruited within the Irish province of Connaught.
In step with NAM, each battalions served within the First Global Struggle at the western entrance in 1914-15. The second one Battalion suffered such heavy casualties, and in December 1914, it needed to merge with the primary Battalion. This used to be redeployed to Mesopotamia (now Iraq) in January 1916 and in addition fought in Palestine in 1918. Put up struggle, the primary Battalion spent many of the post-war duration in India.
“In June 1920, one of the regiment’s males mutinied in Jullundur (now Jalandhar) cantonment in Punjab. They had been protesting in opposition to the behaviour of the ‘Black and Tans’ throughout the Irish Struggle of Independence (1919-22). The ‘Black and Tans’ had been contributors of the Irish constabulary which were recruited from Nice Britain and most commonly produced from demobilised infantrymen who had fought within the First Global Struggle.
Personal James Daly who used to be shot lifeless in Dagshai prison by way of a firing squad on Nov 2, 1920 elderly 20 years. (Photograph courtesy: http://www.independentleft.ie)
Of the 88 males concerned, 77 had been sentenced to imprisonment; handiest the ringleader, Personal James Daly, used to be shot,” NAM states.
In 1922, following the independence of the Irish Unfastened State, all battalions of the British Military that had been recruited there, together with the Connaught Rangers, had been disbanded.
The mutiny in Jalandhar
In step with the testimony of Lance Corporal John Flannery, to be had with the Bureau of Army Historical past of the Irish Military, the unrest within the 1st Battalion of Connaught Rangers began in Jalandhar at the afternoon of June 25, 1920.
“Personal Dawson, B Corporate went to the battalion guardroom and requested to be positioned below arrest, giving as his explanation why to the guard commander that he’s in sympathy along with his nation in its combat for freedom and that he used to be taking this step as a protest in opposition to the atrocious deeds dedicated at the other folks of Eire by way of the Black and Tans,” states Flannery.
There used to be an strive within the battalion to hide up the incident as regardless that Dawson used to be taken below arrest, he used to be later shifted to the army medical institution below the excuse that he used to be affected by sunstroke. Whilst not anything additional came about over the following two days, on June 28, increasingly more troops of the battalion grew to become up on the guardroom asking to be put below arrest in make stronger for his or her nation.
A piquant scenario arose within the Jalandhar unit the place handiest two firms of the battalion — B and D — had been stationed on the time. C corporate used to be stationed in Solan within the hills whilst An organization used to be at Jutogh close to Shimla. Quickly different troops refused to parade as the inside track of the mutiny unfold.
In step with Personal Joseph Hawes, a soldier who used to be stationed within the battalion on the time, the warriors had been making a song revolt songs and shouting ‘up the republic’. The Commanding Officer of the battalion, Lt Col HRG Deacon, attempted to keep an eye on the mutineers by way of addressing them and referred to his 33 years of carrier within the regiment and named the entire other combat honours received by way of the battalion and regiment.
“He had made an eloquent enchantment and I used to be afraid he would possibly persuade the boys so I stepped ahead and mentioned, ‘the entire honours at the Connaught flag are for England, there are none for Eire however there’s going to be one lately and it’ll be the best of all of them’,” mentioned Hawes.
Alternatively, in spite of the unrest, there used to be no violence in Jalandhar as the entire troops willingly deposited rifles and ammunition within the guardroom and listened to the voices of explanation why together with that the the Basic Officer Commanding of the Jullunder Brigade. Alternatively, two males from the battalion slipped away to go for Solan to present the inside track of the mutiny to the C corporate stationed there and to invite them to do the similar. Whilst the warriors in Solan mutinied, the ones stationed in Jutogh remained unswerving.
The mutiny in Solan
The 2 males who had slipped clear of Jalandhar reached Solon at the morning of July 1, 1920, however because the army government in Solan had already been alerted concerning the mutiny in Jalandhar, they had been looking for guests. Those two infantrymen stayed low until nightfall after which reached the unit traces and knowledgeable the warriors provide concerning the occasions in Jalandhar.
Each had been therefore arrested and despatched again to Jalandhar, however no longer prior to that they had completed their activity and purpose a mutiny in Solan which grew to become out to be violent, resulting in lack of lives. Personal James Daly emerged because the chief of the mutineers in Solan.
Within the e-book ‘A Coward if I go back, A hero if I fail: Tales of Irishmen in Global Struggle 1’, creator Neil Richardson states that Personal Daly led a bunch of 70 infantrymen to mount a raid at the unit armoury the place the entire fingers and ammunition had been saved.
‘Alternatively the hill station’s officials — all Irish — defended the armoury and refused to let Daly and his fans achieve get admission to to their guns. Two mutineers had been shot and killed throughout the combat — Personal Peter Sears and fellow Irishman Personal John Smyth — whilst a 3rd used to be badly wounded prior to the rebellion used to be after all suppressed,” writes Richardson. The injured guy, Personal John Miranda, later died in Dagshai on December 22, 1920, of enteric fever.
The courtroom martial
Round 400 infantrymen of the Connaught Rangers had mutinied in Jalandhar and Solan however handiest 88 of them had been put thru courtroom martial. The Basic Courtroom Martial used to be performed in Dagshai in September 1919 and used to be presided upon by way of Lt Basic Sidney Lawford and 3 different officials of the ranks of Captain and Primary. A number of of the mutineers, together with James Daly, had been lodged within the Dagshai prison and numerous sentences had been handed by way of the courtroom martial starting from existence sentence to demise by way of firing squad.
13 infantrymen had been sentenced to demise, however twelve of them were given reprieve as their sentence used to be commuted to existence imprisonment. Handiest James Daly didn’t get a reprieve and used to be ordered to be shot by way of a firing squad on November 2, 1920.
The execution
3 days prior to the date of execution, James Daly used to be shifted from his cellular to a guardroom of the barracks out of doors the Dagshai prison and used to be delivered to the guardroom on the primary gate of the prison an afternoon prior to on November 1.
Reverend T B Baker, a Catholic priest stationed in Solan, were referred to as to Dagshai for the closing rites of Daly. He has given an in depth account of his execution to Lance Corporal Flannery.
“At the night time of November 1st, I heard his closing confession, gave him the Apostolic blessing and promised him I might give him the closing anointing if I most likely may just,” recalled Reverend Baker.
The execution used to be fastened for daybreak on November 2. Daly used to be ordered to be introduced out at 6 am. “The cellular door used to be opened. There used to be Daly, faded and rather thinned, unwashed and his clothes-oh, so previous and grimy. He had on a couple or military boots unpolished, a khaki coat and trousers, a heat jersey beneath the coat and every other thinner jersey beneath this, no longer one shred of which had had a wash because the second July earlier and, it appeared adore it,” Reverend Baker mentioned.
Daly refused to have a black serge bag put over his head as he used to be being taken throughout the jail for his execution, announcing ‘I don’t need this. I’ll die like an Irishman’. Baker controlled to coax him to put on it and prior to he wore it, Daly asked to peer his pals lodged within the prison. This used to be refused by way of the Colonel commanding the jail.
Daly took the bag off and appeared across the jail compound when his leg touched the chair on which he used to be to take a seat prior to being shot. Baker states that he used to be extremely upset when advised he may just no longer meet his pals one closing time.
“He mentioned not anything, however his head fell on my shoulder and for the primary time he gave approach. It used to be all so heartrending…He then, with no phrase, took from his coat the farewell letter which the opposite prisoners wrote to him the day prior to and which one of the crucial jail officials used to be type sufficient to have brought to him, as couple of cigarettes, a couple of annas in silver and nickel and his inexperienced silk handkerchief, the token of management,” says Baker.
Daly refused to be tied right down to the chair when one Sergeant approached. Baker waved off the person whilst a clinical officer got here and stuck a white paper goal over his center and transfer apart.
“The officer answerable for the firing party then motioned me apart and I stationed myself simply out of doors the firing line with my eyes fastened in this officer. As he let fall a handkerchief, the volley used to be fired, and a bullet discovered its mark in Daly’s center and handed out of his frame with an ideal spurt of blood. I instantly rushed ahead and snatched the bag from Daly’s head. He solid a take a look at me and as he did so I anointed him at the brow. His frame leaned a bit to the left, and he used to be lifeless. His shoulder blade stuck in a nook of the chair and thus he remained sitting,” Baker described the execution.
Personal James Daly used to be buried in Dagshai cemetery in conjunction with Personal Peter Sears, John Smyth and later John Miranda.
The aftermath
The first Battalion Connaught Rangers remained stationed in Jalandhar until they had been despatched to Rawalpindi in 1921. They remained there until the regiment used to be disbanded in 1922.
In 1970, at the 50th anniversary of the mutiny, the stays of James Daly, Peter Sears and John Smyth had been exhumed from the Dagshai cemetery and re-interred in Eire in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.
Personal John Miranda used to be English and possibly for this reason his stays weren’t taken to Eire.
He nonetheless lies buried within the cemetery at Dagshai.
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