Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Rare-to-Unit 1921 Constabulary Medal (Ireland) for Gallantry awarded to Temporary Cadet F. Scott, Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish Constabulary, late Lieutenant, Machine Gun Corps, for ‘Pre-eminent Valour’ at Rathcoole on June 16 when his A.D.R.I.C. platoon was ambushed by the I.R.A., all its vehicles immobilised, and heavy casualties inflicted. Despite being severely injured by a landmine blast that had destroyed the armoured truck he was travelling in, Scott volunteered to set out alone on foot for a five-mile journey across hostile territory to fetch help- he ran the gauntlet of the ambushers, who chased and shot at him for over a mile before he managed to break contact, led a rescue force, and brought the survivors of the ambush to safety

Constabulary Medal (Ireland), 2nd type, ‘Reward of Merit Royal Irish Constabulary’ (Temp. Cadet Francis Scott Auxiliary Division. R.I.C. 1921) with integral top silver riband bar, edge nicks, nearly extremely fine £4,000-£5,000

The Recommendation states: ‘Cadet Scott, though badly shaken by the explosion of one of the mines, volunteered to go to Millstreet for reinforcements and was despatched on this hazardous adventure by Lieut. Cressey. He ran the gauntlet of the attackers, who were firing upon him for the first mile of his journey, but eventually reached Millstreet, where a relief party was formed.’

Francis Scott was born on 22 February 1895 at Drumguillen, County Monaghan, Ireland. His father was a farmer, and his family were Presbyterians. He spent most of his childhood living with his paternal uncle, a Rate Collector and Auctioneer, in Ballybay, about 20 miles from Drumguillen. Francis was educated at a local National School until he was at least 15 (1911 Census refers). Later he enrolled at Skerry’s College, Londonderry. Skerry’s was a chain of ‘crammers’ which prepared students for commercial, civil service or professional exams.

Military Service
Scott voluntarily joined his county regiment, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, on 21 September 1915. He understated his age by two years, to make it appear that he had attested soon after reaching the minimum age of 18, though he apparently completed his course at Skerry’s before enlisting. He served in the 10th battalion R.I.F. at Lurgan and Newtonards, and was promoted to Sergeant within six months of joining up. By the end of 1916, Scott was selected for officer training, and he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Irish Rifles on 26 April 1917.

After almost a year of service in France, he transferred as a Lieutenant to the Machine Gun Corps (commonly known as ‘The Suicide Club’) on 20 March 1918 and served with them in the 6th Division throughout the Kaiserschlacht offensives and the Hundred Days. Scott returned to live in Ulster when he was demobilised in 1919.

Intelligence Officer, A.D.R.I.C.
In December 1920, Scott joined the paramilitary Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (A.D.R.I.C., commonly known as the Auxies) and was posted to the newly formed ‘L Company’ in Dublin. A.D.R.I.C. was a mobile force, recruited exclusively from young ex-military Officers with good fighting records from the First World War. Its mission was to hunt down and eliminate the Irish Republican Army. In quick succession, Scott held the job of Company Assistant Quartermaster, and then, from 22 April 1921, Company Intelligence Officer, ranked as R.I.C. District Inspector 3rd Class. Intelligence Officer was the most dangerous of all A.D.R.I.C. assignments, as it involved making lone forays into the hostile operational area, usually without back-up, to gather information about the local I.R.A. units.

On 22 May 1921 ’L’ Company deployed to its new operational area in rural north co. Cork. It was based at an unoccupied mansion, Mount Leader House, overlooking Millstreet village. The next day, Scott received a flesh wound inflicted by an I.R.A. sniper, for which he was later awarded £25 as criminal injury compensation.

Gallantry at Rathcoole
The Rathcoole Ambush is unusually well-documented. In addition to official British reports, reliable statements by many of the I.R.A. participants are available, plus court proceedings dealing with claims for criminal injury compensation and witness statements recorded the day after the ambush at an Inquest on the dead Auxiliaries. The various sources broadly agree, except as to casualties, and the facts can be briefly summarised:

‘L’ Company vehicle convoys travelled regularly between their base at Mount Leader House and the railhead at Banteer. Their habits and pattern of movement were carefully studied, and the I.R.A. decided to plant a series of improvised 7-10 lb landmines, which were buried along the narrow, dusty, un-tarmaced road at intervals corresponding to those usually maintained between the Auxie lorries. Each mine could be remotely detonated by a concealed command wire. Once a lorry was blown up, sections of up to ten I.R.A. men armed with rifles and shotguns would attack the Auxies as they emerged from the wreckage. 111 I.R.A. gunmen were deployed, many of them local men who knew the ground well, plus a Hotchkiss machine-gun team, engineers to set off the landmines, signallers and four I.R.A. staff officers. Some had instructions to place obstacles, such as overturned farm equipment, trees etc. across all approach routes to block off any outside interference. Their aim was to massacre the Auxies, down to the last man if possible.

The target that appeared just after 7:00 p.m. that evening was a column of four tenders (those at the front and rear were armoured) carrying 29 Auxies, armed with service rifles plus one Lewis gun per tender. The ‘L’ Company Commander travelled with Scott, his Intelligence Officer, in the lead vehicle, an armoured Lancia. Scott appears to have been tipped off that the I.R.A. had set up an ambush, because the convoy stopped just short of Rathcoole bridge. ‘A reconnoitring party (acting on previous information) left the tenders and proceeded to skirmish the immediate vicinity of the road, to a depth of 400 yards on the left and right flanks.’ (Report of L Company Commander refers). After failing to find anything, the Auxies got back in their tenders, crossed the river and continued driving towards Mount Leader House at Millstreet.

At around 7:30 p.m., the rear armoured Crossley tender exploded in a sheet of flame and the Hotchkiss machine gun and the I.R.A. riflemen opened fire. The three lorries ahead stopped, but not on top of any of the other landmines, and the Auxies, gripping their weapons, jumped off the unarmoured second and third tenders and sought cover along the roadside from which to return fire. Another mine was detonated close to the men debussing from the second tender. The Company Commander ordered his driver to turn the lead vehicle, an armoured Lancia, around, which took time, and then to drive back towards the black smoke rising from the wreck of the last vehicle. As the Lancia passed over another of the buried mines, the device was detonated. The Lancia was lifted up into the air and the front armour plating blown off, landing forty feet away. Only the third tender was not close to a landmine, but it was blocked in by two wrecks in front of it and the smoking remains of the armoured Crossley tender behind.

Two of the Auxies were shot dead soon after dismounting, and the Company Commander took a bullet through his arm. All four Lewis guns were brought into action, and largely contributed to suppressing the I.R.A.’s fire. However, the Auxies were stuck in place, pinned down and outnumbered three to one. The Company Commander subsequently reported: ‘I sent to Millstreet for reinforcements, D.I.3. F. Scott being the first to go on this errand and the first to arrive at his destination [Mount Leader House] some five miles distant. I cannot find words sufficient to express my appreciation of his hazardous task. He was single handed and under rebel fire for about a mile of his journey and finally arrived [at Mount Leader] without a single round of ammunition, having expended it all on his journey.’

The ‘L’ Company Commander believed that Scott had voluntarily set out on what was virtually a suicide mission. Once the I.R.A. ambushers began to withdraw, he sent again to Mount Leader House for help, in case Scott had been intercepted or shot dead. This time he chose a party of five men to perform ‘this errand’, to improve the chances of some getting through. He must have judged it to be a high risk but vital task, because he could ill-afford to detach so many from the small band of survivors who had no choice but to stay put and watch over their wounded in case some of the I.R.A. decided to return after dark to ‘finish the job’. The criminal injury compensation cases clearly indicate the nature of the casualties sustained by the Auxies. Two men from the second tender had been shot dead, five men from the rear and front trucks had suffered major blast injuries, and four more Auxies had various significant wounds. Most of the remainder had blast or flesh wounds. The Mallow Quarter Sessions Court awarded Scott £375 in criminal injury compensation for having been blown up by a landmine.

On 2 October 1921 Scott was promoted to Second-in-Command of ‘L’ Company. The Auxiliaries were disbanded in January 1922. Scott went on to join the newly-constituted Royal Ulster Special Constabulary, as District Inspector of its 10th Platoon. In 1925 he emigrated to the United States of America, where he was naturalised and worked in the San Francisco Naval Yard. He died on 8 July 1978 in Marin County, California.