Veterans Corps

[corisande]

Can anyone give me any detail on "The Veterans Corps" in Ireland

 

 

Apart from this Christmas Card all I have found is

 

The Veterans Corps (similar to Corps of Commissionaires) which consisted of older ex-servicemen and carried out security duties at government offices.

 

They appear to have been organised on a county basis. Perhaps all counties did not have them, as one ex-soldier I am researching applied to Veterans Corps in an neighbouring county

 

 

[DavidOwen]

Found these at TNA 

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4910002 and http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5689791 and http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5689789 and http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5689788 and http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5689790

Doesn't add much except that it was a registered company and an employment bureau.

 

Of course it may not be the one operating in Ireland.

 

 

Edited 16 March , 2019 by DavidOwen

[corisande]

Thanks for that - more than I managed to find :-)

 

It looks as if it might be the one I am looking for.

 

Though, given the paucity of employment for ex-servicemen in Ireland it is strange I have not come across it before

 

Having said that it could be the same as the group at Gormanston Camp which housed  the R.I.C. Transport Division and the R.I.C. Veterans Division, both of which were permanently based at Gormanston Camp.

 

I do know that the ADRIC were serviced by drivers and "servants" from the RIC Vets Division - on which very little is written

[kenf48]

There are many newspaper references to 'Veterans Corps' of various hue stretching back to the 19th Century.

 

The Irish Times has extensive coverage of the Dublin Veteran Corps formed in 1914 and the Queens University Veteran Corps.

 

The Dublin Evening Telegraph 4 February 1921 in a report of the death of Constable Green of the Veterans Corps, Gormanstown Camp who was shot by armed civilians  in a public house at Balbriggan gave the following definition , 'the Veterans Corps is a body of ex-service men of long service attached to the police for barrack and orderly duties and are non-combatants".

 

An auxiliary unit of the RIC as you have described and according to a Commons written answer included in the budget of the RIC

 

The Irish Times 28 June 1937

 

Described a review by the King and Queen of 80,000 ex-servicemen including 1,00 from the Free State and 150 from Northern Ireland. At the end of the piece, "Two other special contingents were the Corps of Commissionaires and of the Veterans Corps, all in uniform."

 

In London in 1920 uniformed members of the Veterans Corp were employed as uniform security during a strike by 'Plucky Lyons Girls' at Lyons Tea Shops.  They were employed during the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1924.

 

Clearly they were different organisations. Presumably the card shows the various units of the RIC.

 

Ken

[corisande]

Thanks Ken

 

Yes the card shows different "branches" of the RIC. The Veterans were enrolled in the RIC registers in the same way as the Black and Tans, the ADRIC and the "normal" RIC. In other words they are intermingles in the same registers.

 

They were certainly the people that your quote from the Dublin Evening Telegraph showing them to be non-combatants and orderlies. Though a fair number died in War of Independence because many were drivers, and in an ambush the attackers took out the driver first to stop the convoy

 

I have a feeling, but cannot prove that the RIC veteran corps was a completely different thing to the Lyons Teashop security guards

[kenf48]

I think the proof probably lies in the TNA references in that the Lyons Corner Shop 'Veterans Corps' were a commercial organisation incorporated in 1910. From the Army and Navy Gazette 15 February 1913

Ken

[corisande]

Thanks

 

I think you may have it now. That advert coupled with the chap on the right on the card, shows the sort of "commissionaire" that used to be employed in buidings as door men, etc (maybe they stilla re) And are run by a (presumably non-profit) organisation that checks their credentials

 

In a way it is a bit odd that we do not hear more about them if they were processing lots (maybe thousands) of applicants

 

The chap I am researching had "made a written application to the Officer Commanding , The Veterans Corps in Co.Meath" . He was shot a week later and never got a reply