Copy letter from Charles Lynch

Page 1

Letters from Dublin. Easter 1916. Ist Letter. par Willie. You will have gathered from the papers if you are in touch with them on the Western Front, that we here have been having a lively time and the details of the Twelfth Lancers have been striving to keep their end up. I happen to have been in a favorable position for seeing the start of the trouble, so here is an eye witness account. I paraded for Main Guard on Easter Sunday evening, and the orderly officer having a soft spot for and "Old Sweat" awarded me the stick. I took my blankets to the orderly room prepared for a twenty four stay. The night passed without incident until about 4am, when the telephone bell above my head on the orderly room table awoke me. As the adjutant was asked for, I went to the officer's quarters and called Mr Milvain. He came at once to the Orderly Room and as the result of the message he received went and consulted the Colonel. Orders were given to me which I passed on to Squadron Sgt Majors resulting finally in a detachment amounting to fifty mounted men in charge of two officers and our old friend Sgt Thomson leaving Marlboro Barracks for North WallDocks at 9am. They were to escort several waggon loads of ammunition comprising Small Arms Ammunition, Mills Bombs, Rifle Grenades, and Flares back to Phoenix Park Magazine. The escort had been away about four hours when Mr Milvain was again called to the phone, and again he consulted the C.O. It appeared that on it's return along the quayside, the escort came under heavy musketry fire from the Four Courts whose windows had been barricaded with law books and other lumber. The volleys resulted in the death of Sgt Thomson and several men, besides wounded. Hard Luck on Thomson who had just returned from France time-expired. Another Sergeant killed you'll remember as the Dandy Post Corporal here. He rode out in the morning, himself and horse polished up to the nines, "Poor Deviz" The Colonel and Mr Milvain as a result of consultation despatched a Squadron mounted under command of Capt Bryce Wilson to the relief of the which had withdrawn themselves and waggons into Charles St next but one to the Four Courts. They took shelter in the houses each side of the and from their windows covered their charges. There we will leave them as they were destined to remain unrelieved for several days. The Squadron sent to their relief met with a very hot reception on reaching Sackville St. As they neared The General Post Office they received a staggering volley from its windows and from those of its adjacent houses and shops. Several saddles were emptied, Old Smith of my troop stopping a bullet with his thigh it having already passed through his saddle. The Squadron being surrounded with hostile force and at an entire disadvantage, mounted, on the granite sets of Sackville St, withdrew and returned to barracks having to make a detour as Broadstone Bridge had been occupied by a Sein Fein detachment with a machine gun. The barracks seethed…