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1921-99

Lance Corporal Herbert Leslie Stubbs

Lance Corporal Herbert Leslie Stubbs (aged 25) of the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment (Bandon)

Date of incident: 23 Feb. 1921 (captured and killed as IRA reprisal)

Sources: CE, 25, 26 Feb. 1921; CC, 24, 26 Feb., 18 March, 8 April 1921; William McCarthy’s WS 1255, 7 (BMH); Timothy Warren’s WS 1275, 13 (BMH); Denis O’Brien’s WS 1353, 10-11 (BMH); Michael J. Crowley’s WS 1603, 15-16 (BMH); Daniel Canty’s WS 1619, 25 (BMH); Con Flynn’s WS 1621, 19-20 (BMH); Barry (1949, 1989), 103-4; Abbott (2000), 202-3; “The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area,” Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 142; irishmedals.org (accessed 28 July 2014); Commonwealth War Graves Commission; http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/essex-feb-21/stubbs/stubbs.htmlhttp://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/list-1921.htmlhttp://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/essex-feb-21/essex.html (accessed 8 Aug. 2014).

 

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. Other members of the Flying Column went into the suburbs of Bandon and kidnapped two Essex Regiment soldiers and two ‘wireless Naval men’ whom they found walking there. They later killed the two soldiers—Lance Corporal Stubbs and Private Knight—but released the two Navy men.

As one of Tom Barry’s Flying Column members recalled, ‘On the 23rd February 1921 a column was assembled at Newcestown near Bandon. We were divided into sections and armed with revolvers as well as rifles. The column O/C explained the job. We were to enter the town of Bandon and shoot every member of the Essex Regiment we met. I was with a party of six under John Lordan. The six were: M[ichae]l Kearney (R.I.P.), Dinny Brien, Jacky Neill, Jim Doyle of Kilpatrick, Con McCarthy (R.I.P.), and myself [William McCarthy]. . . . We came to the back of the barracks and we overheard a woman speaking to two soldiers (Essex). We took them up the road, ordering the woman inside the fence for her safety. We explained to the soldiers our orders about the Essex Regiment and then we shot them.’ See William McCarthy’s WS 1255, 7 (BMH).

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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