Campaign Groups and Pairs 440
The deeply poignant ‘Kilmichael Ambush 1920’ Family Group to Lieutenant C. J. Guthrie, Royal Air Force, later Temporary Cadet, Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish Constabulary, and his wife Staff Nurse I. H. Guthrie, née Peach, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, who met in Egypt, married after demobilisation and went together to Macroom, co. Cork, Ireland, as they were expecting a baby
Guthrie drove the second of two Crossley Tenders that were ambushed by an Irish Republican Army unit commanded by Tom Barry on 28 November 1920; he was the only ADRIC man (out of 18) who managed to escape from the killing zone, despite reportedly being wounded; he made his way alone, on foot, in pitch darkness and driving rain, through hostile territory back towards Macroom; he was intercepted by I.R.A. members just two miles from safety. One of the ‘Disappeared’, his fate was unknown; extensive searches for him drew a blank; his wife returned to England and gave birth to their daughter. In 1922 the Irish government admitted that the I.R.A. had shot Guthrie and disposed of his body in a bog
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. C. J. Guthrie. R.A.F.) in named card box of issue, surname officially corrected, extremely fine
British War and Victory Medals (S. Nurse I. Peach.) in named card box of issue, and with Q.A.I.M.N.S. Reserve Cape Badge, and two War Office letters regarding enlistment and termination of recipient’s employment with the Q.A.I.M.N. S. Reserve, virtually mint state (lot)
£1,200-£1,600 M.I.D. London Gazette 30 July 1920.
Note: Much has been written about the Kilmichael ambush, both during the Anglo-Irish War and subsequently. Some is inaccurate, being strongly influenced by either British or I.R.A. mythology. Recommended reading, which focuses on the facts about the fighting around the second Crossley, is: I.R.A. Witness Statement 1,234 by Jack Hennessy, pp 4-6, August 1955; Kilmichael: A Battlefield Study by Sean A. Murphy, a small arms specialist and retired Commandant of the Irish Defence Forces, 2014; Green Tears for Hecuba by Patrick Twohig, a Catholic priest who knew the place and people well, 1994;
theauxiliaries.com by David Grant, which includes helpful photographs, maps and original documents.
Cecil James Guthrie was born on 9 March 1899 at Dysart, Fife, Scotland, the son of an affluent solicitor. His mother died in 1906. He studied at Kirkaldy High School and George Watson College, Edinburgh, before attending Edinburgh University to read law. On
reaching his 18th birthday, he joined the Royal Flying Corps in May 1917 and was appointed Second Lieutenant on 30 August. He was
posted to successive training units in England and, from September 1917, Training Squadrons in Egypt. For most of the time he was based at El Amiriya near Alexandria and also attended courses at Heliopolis near Cairo. Guthrie became a Lieutenant on the formation of the RAF on 1 April 1918. He spent a month in hospital (27 September to 26 October 1918) and it was probably then that he met Irene Peach, a Staff Nurse in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, who had arrived in Egypt in August 1917.
Active Service on the North-West Frontier
Further east, in India, 114 Squadron RAF flew BE 2 (c and e variant) reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft. The squadron’s designated role was ‘Cooperation of Aircraft with the Army’ and most of its planes were dispersed across north-west India, to deal with mounting unrest on the Frontier and in the Punjab, which came to a head at Amritsar, 10-13 April 1919. 114 Squadron was managed from two locations, Quetta and Lahore, and was quickly bought up to full established strength, as it was being used for dispersing riotous crowds or hostile tribesmen by strafing and bombing. Guthrie, who by now had a great deal of flying time on BE 2s (he had been appointed as a junior instructor), was posted to 114 Squadron, apparently to the Flight based in Quetta, arriving on 13 April 1919.
The Third Afghan War began on 6 May 1919 and lasted until August. Individual aircraft from Quetta were involved in the capture of the Spin Baldak fortress from the Afghan army and attacks on hostile tribesmen at Fort Sandeman in Baluchistan and at Hindubagh near Quetta. Guthrie was one of four officers from 114 Squadron (one of them was the Quetta Flight Commander) who was Mentioned in the Commander-in-Chief’s despatch for his “distinguished service”. However, his name is not on the roll for the India General Service Medal.
Guthrie was posted to 31 Squadron at Risalpur near Peshawar on 30 October 1919, as 114 Squadron was starting a conversion programme to re-equip with Bristol Fighters. It was considered pointless to retrain Guthrie, as it had been agreed that he would leave India and the RAF within a few weeks. He returned to Britain in January 1921 and was ‘dispersed’ on 15 February 1921. His marriage to Irene Peach took place shortly afterwards.
Temporary Cadet, ADRIC
On 17 August 1920, Guthrie joined the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC, commonly known as the Auxies) a heavily armed and motorised mobile force, recruited from young ex-Military Officers with good records. It was described as a police force, but was in reality essentially a military unit, whose mission was to hunt down and eliminate members of the Irish Republican Army. However, most of its members lacked the skills required for this role, and they received little useful training for it before they were rushed into the field.
Since ADRIC was set up in great haste from July 1920 and as quickly disbanded after the Truce in 1922, its records are incomplete and raise many questions which are difficult for historians to answer confidently. One question is why it attracted a disproportionate number of ex-RAF officers (426 according to David Grant, double the number expected if ex-officers of each Service had joined in equal proportions to their total manpower). Alexander Lewis (a contemporary of Guthrie’s in the RFC/RAF and in ‘C’ Company ADRIC, who joined ADRIC four days before Guthrie) recorded that “I was too unsettled to return to university with all the terrors and nightmares fresh in my mind of the air war”. He had no job and little money. When he saw an advertisement for ADRIC in the Sunday Pictorial, he travelled to London the next day.
“Arriving at Scotland Yard, I was taken down innumerable passages and several flights of stairs to a huge long room at the end of which was a large desk and behind it was the commissioner in charge of the Special Branch. [Probably this was Major Cyril Fleming, R.I.C.]. Without wasting any time he looked at my identity papers, then picked up the phone and called the Air Ministry to confirm everything I told him… I was immediately sworn in… my experiences in Ireland would fill a book, and I was still suffering nightmares for more years after.”
Guthrie was designated RIC number 77863 and ADRIC number 294. He was assigned to ‘C’ Company (one of about twenty Companies stationed around Ireland), which was made up of three Platoons, each split into three Sections of up to nine men. After a few chaotic weeks in Dublin, the Company deployed to Macroom, county Cork, on 17 September 1920. They were billeted in Macroom Castle, a dilapidated stately home on the edge of the town. Unusually, Irene Guthrie accompanied her husband to Macroom, as she was four months pregnant. Although she lived in a kind of ‘married quarter’ in the Castle, where the Company had guards on duty 24/7, some who knew the family say that Irene got a job in the local hotel, which was heavily patronised by off-duty Auxies.
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