The Connaught Rangers mutiny of 1920 in India
By Tom Gillespie
LAST Wednesday (June 29) marked the 102nd anniversary of the Connaught Rangers' mutiny in India in which one Mayo solider died of a shotgun wound and several other west of Ireland enlistees were involved.
According to the website independent.ie, the Connaught Rangers mutinied because of the atrocities committed by the Black and Tans in Ireland.
Only one soldier was executed. Private James Joseph Daly (22), of the 1st Battalion The Connaught Rangers, regimental number 35025. He was a native of Tyrrellspass Co. Westmeath.
Two men died while attacking the armoury. One of them was Private Peter Sears (32781) from The Neale, Co. Mayo.
Fourteen were sentenced to death. However, only the leader of the rebellion, Private J. Daly, was finally executed as the army leadership would have realised the extreme provocation to the Irish hearing of the fate of their fellow Irishmen at home at the hands of British soldiers of another regiment.
The execution was ordered after court-martial. The execution took place at 6 a.m. on the morning of November 2, 1920.
The mutiny began on June 28, 1920, when five men of C Company 1st Battalion the Connaught Rangers refused to obey orders. The Union Flag at Jullundur on the North-West Frontier was replaced with the Irish tricolour. Rumours spread through the Connaught Rangers detachment stationed at Solan. Seventy Connaught Rangers, led by James Daly, attacked the armoury and two soldiers were killed.
The mutiny was over within three days and the mutineers imprisoned at Dagshai.
A Court of Enquiry into the deaths of Private Sears and Private Smyth was held on July 18, 1920. The court declared that the soldiers died from gunshot wounds inflicted by the defenders of the magazine on July 1,1920, about 22.00 hours.
The court further declared that the shooting of the above mentioned soldiers was justifiable on account of their mutinous behaviour in attacking the magazine with naked bayonets and in refusing to halt when challenged.
Others Mayo natives involved in the mutiny were John Joseph Buckley (Connaught Rangers, Numbers 6723 and 35254, Machine Gun Corps Number 162451).
He was born on the August 28, 1899, and died on November 17, 1966. He was a native of Claremorris.
He enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps at Ballinrobe on March 5, 1917. He re-enlisted in the Connaught Rangers on July 17, 1919, and was discharged with ignominy on March 18, 1921.
He was described in his discharge papers as five-foot eight-inches, of fresh complexion with grey eyes and brown hair.
He was sentenced to penal servitude for life and on return to the UK, he served his sentence in Maidstone and Portland Prisons. He was released in January 1923.
Delaney Valentine, aged 23, was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life. He was a native of Logboy.
He was sentenced to death and when his death sentence was commuted to penal servitude he held on to the warrant issued to him informing him he was to be executed. He sewed it into a brown scapular he wore around his neck.
While serving his sentence in Maidstone Prison he and some comrades went on hunger strike for 11 days. Their chaplin prevailed on them to abandon the strike after they had been handcuffed and force fed liquid egg.
Privater James Joseph Devers (Connaught Ranger 32328) was born on December 20, 1899, and died on September 26, 1958, aged 59 years. He enlisted at Ballina on February 14, 1918, in the 2nd Battalion Connaught Rangers and transferred to the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers on June 1, 1919.
He was court-martialled and sentenced to life imprisonment, commuted to 21 years. He was imprisoned in Dagshai, Portland, Maidstone and Parkhurst prisons and served two years and seven months before being released on January 5, 1923.
Below is part of a statement submitted by James Devers in relation to his treatment while in detention after being found guilty of mutiny.
The statement was made as part of a disability claim to the Irish government under the Connaught Rangers compensation scheme.
After the mutiny the mutineers were taken to Lucknow and kept there about a month or six weeks.
Then they were brought up to Dagshai and some of them were put in wooden huts and the others into the condemned prison.
Devers said: "I was first in a wooden hut and after being tried I was removed to condemned prison. The treatment in Lucknow was alright but we were treated very badly in Dagshai, the food was very bad and the prison was very damp, the walls were all wet. I was ill-treated by a warder, knocked and kicked and thrown into a cell and put on bread and water for three days when I went on hunger strike. I was sentenced to 21 years. The conditions remained bad all the time and I was kept there until November when we were brought to Bombay and put on the boat for England.
"On the journey to England we refused to do exercise and we were kept locked up for a few days. Nothing more happened on the journey until we landed in Portland in January 1921.
"We were kept about a month in Portland prison when we were removed to Maidstone prison. One of our men was ill-treated and we went on strike and we were put on 15 days bread and water, 28 days Skilly (a thin porridge) diet, 28 days No. diet and three months solitary confinement.
"We went through that punishment twice. We were over a week on hunger strike when the punishment was first imposed on us. I was taken out of cell and brought to hospital suffering from pains all over my body. I was in the hospital for about a fortnight and then removed to a convalescent hospital in Parkhurst, Isle of Wight. I was there until I was released in January 1923."
Patrick Joseph Mangan (32662), enlisted at Ballina on October 7, 1919, aged 21 years, and served for one year and 167 days. He was found guilty and discharged with ignominy and sentenced to three years imprisonment, serving one year and nine months.
He was described in his discharge papers as five-foot seven-inches, fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair.
The Dáil passed the Connaught Rangers (Pensions) Act in 1936. It provided for the payment of pensions, allowances and gratuities to or in respect of certain former members of the 1st Battalion, the Connaught Rangers. The effect was to give the mutineers parity of esteem with veterans of the Irish War of Independence.