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1921-32

Private Maurice F. Robins

Private Maurice F. Robins (aged 18) of the 1st Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry Regiment (Cratloe, Co. Clare, and Fermoy Military Hospital)

Date of incident: 3 Feb. 1921 (date of death)

Sources: II, 20, 22 Nov. 1920; Death Certificate (Fermoy District, Union of Fermoy), 3 Feb. 1921; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/75227718/ROBINS,%20M%20Fhttp://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/aircraft-clare/robins/robins.htmlhttp://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/aircraft-clare/aircraft-crash.html (accessed 18 July 2015).

 

Note: Private Robins died of exhaustion at the Fermoy Military Hospital on 3 February 1921 following the infliction of severe leg wounds by rifle fire seventy-seven days earlier (on 18 November 1920). His death was adjudged a wilful murder by persons unknown—certainly by a Volunteer or Volunteers. By mistake the CWGC site gives 2 March 1921 as the date of Robins’s death. Robins and another soldier had been wounded (his comrade fatally) while they were guarding a downed military aircraft near Cratloe, Co. Clare, on 18 November 1920. The death of Robins had been reported incorrectly much earlier. The Irish Independent of 20 November 1920 had offered the following brief account of the incident: ‘An aeroplane on its way to Limerick from Ennis had, owing to engine trouble, to descend near Cratloe, 6 miles from the city, and a military guard was placed in charge of the machine. At 2:30 a.m. on Thursday [18 November 1920] the guard was attacked, and Pte. Speckman (or Bateman), Oxford and Bucks L[ight] I[nfantry], was shot dead, and Pte. Robbins [sic] dangerously wounded in the lower part of the body and right knee. The latter died yesterday.’ Two days after the initial report, however, Robins was said to be alive and ‘progressing favourably’. Killed at the scene was his comrade Private Alfred W. Spackman. See II, 20, 22 Nov. 1920; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/aircraft-clare/robins/robins.html http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/aircraft-clare/aircraft-crash.html (accessed 18 July 2015).

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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