The lads could hear the engine of the Triumph Model H ‘Trusty’ Motorbike throttling back in the distance as it negotiated the bends and drew closer to their position at Lisatunny. Three of the men were armed with rifles. A fourth with a shotgun. They adjusted their sights and made themelves ready to fire. Their target was nearing on his return journey from an Intelligence Briefing at Templemore Barracks and his removal would be of no great loss. He had recently threatened to shoot local priest, Father O’Halloran and had raided and seized Court Papers from an I.R.A. Arbitration Court being held at the Workhouse in Nenagh. In other words he was a constant thorn in the sides of the I.R.A..

 

The target was Lieutenant (formerly Captain) Henry James Hambleton. He was an intelligence officer based at Nenagh Military Barracks and was attached to the 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. Henry was born 1893 at Poona, in the Punjab to Warrant Officer Robert Henry Hambleton and his wife Susannah Esther Hoogstratten. Robert appears to have been a Warrant Officer in charge of rent and supplies so Henry would have been an Army brat and exposed to the military tradition from childhood. Henry attended Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Indian Army on 15/08/1914. He was attached to the 88th Carnatic Infantry,  a native force but with British officers.

 

On the 14/05/1915, 2nd Lieutenant Hambleton arrived in France attached to 1st Battalion Northamptonshires. On the 28/07/1915 he suffered shrapnel wounds to the head from shell splinters at Noyelles. A doctors report records that Hambleton not only had physical injuries with shrapnel fragments extracted through his palate but was also suffering from Migraine and Tinnitus. These days he would have been labelled as suffering from PTSD and very probably discharged or at least put on lighter duties. 

 

Hambleton convalesced at Peamore House in Exeter where he became a ward of Baron Trehawke Kekewich. Kekewich had lost two of his brothers, three of his sons and a fourth badly wounded, to the war. Perhaps he saw in Hambleton a successor to his title, in any case he took a shine to young Hambleton. 

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In September Hambleton is gazetted full Lieutenant and on the 16th of December 1915 returns to India where he rejoins the 88th Carnatic Infantry. Duties would include training and internal security.

 

In August 1918, Hambleton was once more back in Britain, this time as a temporary Captain based at Aldershot where he was on a Senior Officers course. In January 1919 he was given charge of ‘A’ Coy, 2nd Batt., Northamptonshires in Belgium. The regiment was returned to Britain the following month and by August, Hambleton had given up his temporary Captaincy and was back as Lieutenant again. Hambleton attended a final medical board at Tipperary Military Hospital on 06/05/1920 where he was classed as medically A1. Although the board was recommending his return to Northamptonshire, he reported to his company commander at Templemore. He was next transferred to Nenagh and attached to the 1st Batt Northamptonshire regiment, B Coy as an Intelligence Officer and 2nd in command. 

 

By all accounts Hambleton was popular among the troops although not with the local population. One account found on an internet forum states that both Lieutenants Hambleton and Leetham struggled to maintain control in Nenagh against a very effective foe and disgruntled population, and they were not at all helped by the Company Commander Reginald Humphrey who had more or less given up and taken to drink. Humphrey was suffering himself from weariness of the conflict and the memories of the recent Great War. He had suffered frostbite in the trenches. Humphrey retired from the military on 31/03/1921.

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This is the time of the Murder Gang in Nenagh and the burning of shops and businesses as reprisal. Contemporary accounts state that Hambleton was popular amongst the ranks but it may be that this popularity was built on a lack of discipline and allowing the troops free rein when dealing with the population. Arson of business premises and homes, random beating and shootings meant that most IRA were either ‘on the run’ or operating from safe houses. In fact it was a telegram from a former Nenagh resident and R.M., Major Deese, writing to the War Office and expressing his concern at the increase and level of reprisals by the Crown in Nenagh that eventually saw an end put to this escalation.

 

R.I.C. Constable McCarthy had been stationed in the town for over a year with his wife and family. The day he was shot, saw the town erupt with indiscriminate rifle fire and bomb explosions. Shops were shuttered and closed early with residents keeping to the rear of their houses to avoid any casualties that might result from stray bullets. The town was effectively closed down. Flannery’s in Castle St was arsoned with Herriots and John Sexton’s on either side sustaining fire damage. Further down the street at the junction of Abbey Lane, James Nolan’s Hardware and Seed store was also arsoned. This spread next door to Renehans drapers which was also burned out.

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Ned O’Leary, Adjutant of No 1 Brigade Tipperary North IRA, provides an account of the occurances at Caseys Cross. It was expected that the creamery at Nenagh would be targeted as a further reprisal against the shooting and wounding of Constable McCarthy. The IRA lay in wait for the would be arsonists. However the enemy failed to engage so the Flying Column was withdrawn to a haybarn near Casey’s Cross.  Paddy Starr was sent into Nenagh to get cigarettes and to report on any Troop movements ….

 

“…. while on his way, Starr met Captain Hambleton, O/C of the Nenagh Military Post, going on a motorbike to Templemore, then battalion Headquarters for the troops in North Tipperary. Hambleton had been stationed in Nenagh for some time and bore the reputation of being an extremely bad pill. Starr, once the officer had gone out of sight, came back. and reported what he had observed.

I selected Jeremiah Larkin, Hugh Kelly, Mick Gaynor and Starr to come with me to a position one hundred yards on the Nenagh side of Casey’s Cross and got behind a wall at about 2 p.m. to await the return of Captain Hambleton. Larkin, Kelly and myself had rifles; Gaynor had a shotgun and Starr who was required for recognition purposes only, had no gun.

At about 4 p.m. Hambleton approached, travelling at a fairly fast pace. When he was about 50 yards or so from our position, I gave the order to fire. Only Larkin and myself did so. At fifteen yards distance from us, he fell off the motorbike and made for the fence on the far side of the road. He was then almost opposite me and I fired again, hitting him through the left shoulder. He fell forward across the fence into the field on the other side, shouting as he did so, ‘ You’ve got me.’….Hambleton’s body was left in the field into which it had fallen, while we rejoined the remainder of the Flying Column….”

 

The .303 SMLE has an effective killing range of around 600 yards. This can be extended to 2500 yards depending on wind, trajectory, ammunition or users ability. One also has to consider lighting factors and the time of the year. It was dusk on a November evening. Ned O’Leary states he shot Hambleton from a range of 50 yards. This would account for the near amputation of Hambletons right arm which was left hanging by sinews only from the elbow. Sean Gaynor records that Hambleton returned fire while laying on the ground although it is difficult to see how he did so if Hambleton had already been wounded in the arm.

 

At 18.00 hours a report was received from an ex-R.A.M.C. member advising the troops in the Barracks at Summerhill that one of their colleagues was lying injured in a field near Cleary’s House in Lisatunny, Knockalton. Hambletons would be rescuers of 16 of the Northamptonshire Regiment troops arrived in a three ton truck. They attempted to administer aid In the darkness and bind his wounds but it was too late, Hambleton died soon after. According to a statement read out in Westminster by Sir Hamar Greenwood (Chief Secretary for Ireland), upon their return to Nenagh with the body, four R.I.C. men who were in the back of the truck, opened fire indiscriminately as the truck entered Barrack St. They refused to obey orders to desist. One presumes these were Auxies and part of the local Murder gang. It was only by the officer of the Northants, withrawing his service revolver and firing over the Policemens heads that he caused the RIC to cease firing.

 

The truck continued on its way to the Military Barracks in Summerhill where the body was removed to the Military Hospital Building around the back. What was immediately obvious was the Cordite staining on Hambletons jacket, indicating that he had been shot at close range possibly with a coup-de-grace administered.. This was sufficient to incense the Barrack troops resulting in some of them going on the rampage through Nenagh. Greenwood plays down this part stating that nothing apart from a few broken windows resulted…. 

 

….The Belfast Newsletter says differently reporting on 06/11/1920 the arrest and subsequent shooting of the O’Brien cousins who were ‘shot while trying to escape’. The irony here is that the O’Briens had left their lodgings at Castle St and Gaol St in order to avoid any inevitable reprisals. Further it reports the burning of a Public House (also owned by Republican Jimmy Nolan), and the arson of Gills Printing Office and Nenagh Creamery. The Cork Weekly News of 13/11/1920 recorded the arrival of armoured cars to restore order on the streets while the Dundee Courier of 06/11/1920 stated that many of the local citizens had fled the town for safety. Elsewhere, Le Journal of 06/11/1920 ensured that the incident was worthy of international attention placing Nenagh firmly once again on the world stage and reporting not only the killings but also the subsequent reprisals.

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The funeral of the O’Briens led to further confrontation as both coffins were draped in the tricolour but John O’Briens coffin also had an American flag as he was a citizen of that country. This had the potential to turn the affair into an international incident as the American Consul had been informed. Matters weren’t helped by British Troops refusing at fixed bayonet point, to allow the mourners to follow the cortege through the streets of the town.

 

Hambletons body meanwhile was removed to Britain and interred at St Martins Exminster Church in Exeter on 10/11/1920 with full military honours. It was accompanied by a Lieutenant, an NCO and six privates of the Northants Regiment. It left Higher Barracks, Exeter borne on a Gun Carriage and led by the band of Depot Devon Regiment. The chief mourners were Baron Trehawke Kekewich and his wife and Hambletons younger brother Herbert, also a Lieutenant. After a firing party of 40 gave three volleys over the graveside, the Last Post was played by four Buglers. Much of Exeter flew the Union Jack at half-mast and businesses in the town exhibited signs of mourning. No doubt much of this was due to the regard Hambleton was held in by Baron Kekewich going so far as to have Hambleton interred close to his brother Major General R.G. Kekewich who had committed suicide in 1914. A memorial plaque in the Peamore Chapel reads as follows….

 

“To the glory of God & in memory of a very gallant gentleman Henry James Hambleton Lieut Northanptonshire Regiment who severely wounded in the Great War regained his health at Peamore & was assassinated by the Irish rebels near Nenagh 4th November 1920 in the 27th year of his age and rests in this churchyard."

 

Hambletons role as Intelligence Officer would be inherited by Lieutenant B.A.E.M. Hall, also of the Northants. But what of Hambleton himself? Despised as he was by the Irish, was he not also a victim?

Consider this…here was a young man, brought up in a military tradition, a product of the Raj. He was seriously wounded and sent back to fight albeit with a different foe. It is recommended he be returned to duties in Northamptonshire but instead winds up in the middle of a conflict in Tipperary.

He is awarded promotion to Captain then reduced to Lieutenant less than six months later. Hardly does much for one’s self confidence. Is this why he fought to remain near the action. Although we know he was sent on a senior officers course to Aldershot, we don’t hear anything of he being sent on an I.O. course.

One thing that instantly stands out is his use of the same route both going and returning to Templemore. This is the action of an amateur. Unpredictabilty is how you survive as an I.O. The first rule would be to make yourself a difficult target by varying your routes and schedule. 

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Hambleton suffered from Tinnitus and Migraine but was put into a position of great responsibility marking him not only as a legitimate target but also cast adrift without the support of a competent commanding officer. He would be dealing with the likes of seasoned veterans, now rebranded as Auxilleries. These tough men were unlikely to take kindly to being ordered about by a babyfaced subaltern. Was this the key to his popularity? Did he give the men free rein in their actions which contributed to the escalation of events in Nenagh at the time. 

Hambleton would be the sixth of seven men lost by the Northamptonshire Regiment in North Tipperary between 1920 and 1921.

TIMES -  06/11/1920