The Execution of the Iron Twelve

[Hedley Malloch]

Remembering today, the 108th anniversary of the execution of the eleven British soldiers and their French protector at Guise Château, Guise. The soldiers were trapped behind the lines and taken in by the village of Iron. They were hidden for five months before being betrayed to the Germans. Their execution was the biggest of its kind to occur on the Western Front.

The soldiers were: 2/Connaught Rangers: George Howard, William Thompson, Terence Murphy, Matthew Wilson and John Walsh; 2/Royal Munster Fusiliers: Denis Buckley, Fred Innocent, Daniel Horgan, James Moffatt, John Nash; and 15th (The King's) Hussars: John Stent.

Vincent Chalandre was the Frenchman who helped to hide them. In the reprisals that followed, villagers in Iron had their houses and businesses burned and many were imprisoned. At least five of them died as a result of their sufferings and deprivations

With Respect.

Hedley Malloch

The Iron Memorial Fund.

[Michelle Young]

Remembered