Adavoyle Train Ambush

[Toby Brayley]

After the war the 10th Royal Hussars (PWO) returned to Canterbury in mid-1919 - their first Home posting for 20 years. However, in April 1920 they were in Ireland, countering the activities of those seeking Independence. In June 1921 they escorted King George V to the opening of the first Parliament of Northern Ireland, in Belfast. On the return journey to Dublin on the 24th their train was derailed by a mine planted by the IRAs Fourth Division. The derailment led to the deaths of three members of the machine gun troop, a railway guard and over 40 horses, other sources say that four member's of the 10th were killed although I have no evidence of this.

This photograph, from the archive, shows the horrific aftermath. This incident caused an outcry it was said that many of the men were devastated as a number of these horses had been through the Great War with the 10th.

You tube-video. *Graphic Content showing dead horses*

interesting link.

http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/adavoyle/adavoyle.html

[corisande]

other sources say that four member's of the 10th were killed although I have no evidence of this.

It is a common feature of Witness Statements by the IRA that they overestimated the number of deaths that they caused in an incident. Equally the British overestimated as a rule the number of people attacking them.. You can call it the fog of war.

There was no way that the deaths of 4 members of the 10th could have been hidden from the records now available. I would be confident that the number of British deaths was limited to the 3 men named on my website. There were a number of wounded as well

[Toby Brayley]

Thank you.

There is hardly a mention of the incident in our archive. In the 10th records there are no hints at all of there being any further deaths although the press snippets manage to make the number of horse deaths jump wildly from 10 to all the horses on the train!

I was not aware of there being any gallantry awards awarded until I came across your website; sadly the inter-war era in the archive is very lacking!

[corisande]

There were a number of 10th deaths in Ireland at this time

http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/REGIMENTS/regiments/hussars-10.html

It is probably not all, as I have updated British deaths here, but not updated the regimental deaths. You would need to run down the Regiment column on that page to check

The gallantry awards for British troops in Ireland were, you might say, low key. And they were confined to BM, MBE, OBE, CBE and not MM, MC etc

[Steven Broomfield]

Corisande - that is a fine piece of work. Thank you.

[Khaki]

After the war the 10th Royal Hussars (PWO) returned to Canterbury in mid-1919 - their first Home posting for 20 years. However, in April 1920 they were in Ireland, countering the activities of those seeking Independence. In June 1921 they escorted King George V to the opening of the first Parliament of Northern Ireland, in Belfast. On the return journey to Dublin on the 24th their train was derailed by a mine planted by the IRAs Fourth Division. The derailment led to the deaths of three members of the machine gun troop, a railway guard and over 40 horses, other sources say that four member's of the 10th were killed although I have no evidence of this.

This photograph, from the archive, shows the horrific aftermath. This incident caused an outcry it was said that many of the men were devastated as a number of these horses had been through the Great War with the 10th.

You tube-video. *Graphic Content showing dead horses*

interesting link.

http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/adavoyle/adavoyle.html

This photograph, from the archive, shows the horrific aftermath. This incident caused an outcry it was said that many of the men were devastated as a number of these horses had been through the Great War with the 10th.

You tube-video. *Graphic Content showing dead horses*

I wasn't aware that many GW horses returned to the UK from F&F, am I wrong in this?

khaki

[Toby Brayley]

I wasn't aware that many GW horses returned to the UK from F&F, am I wrong in this?

khaki

A great deal more actually returned to the UK than most people think!

Although there is no evidence whatsoever that any of the horses killed in the above ambush had served in the Great War as there are no statistics for the 10th. I suspect that the comment may have had something to do with the media..

The 11th Hussars for example in January 1919 had all 501 of their horses assessed by the Remount Board for "disposal". Of the 501 horses, 87 remained with the Regiment "post-bellum" , 112 were to return to the UK to be sold and 288 were sold abroad. 14 were destroyed, not bad considering the hellish time some of these mounts had, a large number had served for the duration of the war. A number of officers actually bought their issued mounts and brought them back to the UK.

The horses in the Middle East were less fortunate!

[Steven Broomfield]

A number of officers actually bought their issued mounts and brought them back to the UK.

And, of course, Horsepower has the hooves of several ("LC" and "Violette" amongst them) to prove it!

Plus, of course, many officers had taken their own horses with them in the first place: IIRC, the CO of the 11th (Pitman) had taken his hunters with him in 1914 and brought them all back safely.

[Toby Brayley]

He did indeed although "Landscape Lass" was killed at a Point to Point in 1920!

[Guest]

Hello. I don’t know if you’ll see this as I’m 3 years late to the conversation but my great grandad was here and his horse was the only one that survived! I have a newspaper clipping of the horse being hoisted out the train

Edited 11 November , 2018 by Guest

[EDWARD1]

As part of a Remembrance Walk/Talk around the War Graves in Middlesbrough Linthorpe Cemetery we stopped at the War Grave  of  William Telford 534369 10th Hussars who died in this attack

The Headstone is a Private Permanent memorial. (P P )

Edited 12 November , 2018 by EDWARD1

[Toby Brayley]

 

14 hours ago, jessty said:

Hello. I don’t know if you’ll see this as I’m 3 years late to the conversation but my great grandad was here and his horse was the only one that survived! I have a newspaper clipping of the horse being hoisted out the train

 

1 hour ago, EDWARD1 said:

As part of a Remembrance Walk/Talk around the War Graves in Middlesbrough Linthorpe Cemetery we stopped at the War Grave  of  William Telford 534369 10th Hussars who died in this attack

The Headstone is a Private Permanent memorial. (P P )

 

Hello, thank you all.  I am glad the thread has been resurrected. I have alerted my replacement at HorsePower Museum as I am sure he will be interested.

 

regards

Toby