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Henry Angliss used the alias Patrick Mahon as a cover. A certain amount of information on his background can be gleaned from his Army Record . He joined the army as "Henry Angliss" and put is birth as being in "Balmaine, Dublin". Born about Aug 1891 according to his enlistment papers ("Balmaine, Dublin" which I cannot find, is given in 1911 census as his place of birth). There is no record of a birth in Ireland, Scotland or in England as Angliss. He gives his mother as Catherine O'Hara, who can be seen to have married a John O'Hara when Henry Angliss was 3, and Henry was not in their household in 1901 census. There is a birth of Henry M'Loughlin in Enniskillen in 1892 (Jul/Sep, vol 2, p58) which appears to be him as he cited has mother as Catherine O'Hara. In addiition he gives his age on enlistment on 1 Sep 1909 as 18 years and 1 month, which ties with that d.o.b.
1892 Jul 21 Born Enniskillen, the illegitimate son of Catherine McLoughlin
His 1919 marriage gives father as "Joseph Angliss", deceased in 1919, and a Sgt Major in 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. Most cavalry regiments during the latter part of the 19th century did service in India, Egypt and in South Africa and the 6th Inniskillings was no exception. The regiment eventually returning to France from India in January 1915. I cannot find any reference to Joseph Angliss in Inniskilling Dragoons.
The form filled by his widow, in 1921 records that Henry Angliss's family living at that date were, all at 4 Grafton Place, Gillingham, Kent. Henry Angliss himself would have been 28 in 1921
1901 census . His mother is living in barracks in Dublin. But Henry is not there
The implication of the census form is that John O'Hara is on the Barrack Form H, where we find a James O'Hara, Drummer in 4th RDF
Catherine O'Hara living with James and Frances at Linenhall Barracks (Inns Quay, Dublin). Linenhall Barracks was originally Dublin's White Linen Hall. It opened in 1728 and was the centre of Ireland's linen trade with England. After the constuction of the Belfast linen hall, trade through Dublin went into decline and the Linen Hall closed in 1828 and fell into disrepair. It was taken over by the British army in the 1880's as a barracks and was home to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. By 1916, it was an administrative post, home only to army clerks. The building was on a 3-acre site, was three stories high and contained in excess of 550 rooms. During the Easter Rising of 1916, the Linenhall Barracks was taken over by rebel forces under the command of Commandant Edward Daly and set alight. Heavy fighting ensued on North King Street and the Linen Hall was destroyed by fire. What was left was demolished.
Assuming that Henry Angliss was born illigitimately as Henry M'Loughlin and this would be him living with grandparents in Enniskillen in 1901 census
1910 Jan 20 attested to Scottish Rifles. Private. Aged 18 years and 5 months (ie born 1891about Aug in Dublin). He was a "tube works labourer" when he enlisted. The implication is that he was working in Scotland at that time
1911 census gives us Private Henry Angliss of Scottish Rifles at Meeanee Barracks, Colchester. Single, aged 19 (ie born circa 1891) born Balmaine, Dublin. His mother is living in Kent at 4 Grafton Place Medway Road Gillingham Kent. His mother married John O'Hara in 1895, when Henry Angliss would have been 3 years old, so John O'Hara is probably not the father. His mother claims to have had 7 children, 5 living and these are on the 1911 census
1911 Sep 18 On the troopship Somali for Malta, arriving there 17 Sep 1911
1913 Henry Angliss marries Ellen E. Musk at Holborn, London Holborn Dec vol. 11b p1138 Not sure if this is him
1913 Feb 19. Appointed L/Cpl
1914 August: in Malta. Returned to England, landing at Southampton 22 September 1914. Attached to 23rd Brigade, 8th Division.
1914 Sep 10.Promoted Corporal
1914 Sep 14. Left Malta on troopship Galeta for Britain
1914 He entered the war in France 5 Nov 1914 with 2nd Scots Rifles, then became a WOII in Highland Light Infantry, before being commissioned into Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
1915 Jul 1. Promoted A/Sgt
1915 Nov 1. Appointed A/CSM.
1916 Mar 1. Reverted to Corporal
1916 Apr 1. Transferred to Highland Light Infantry as A/Sgt
1916 Jun 26. Promoted Sgt
1916 Oct 22. Awarded DCM, gazetted 11 Dec 1916. He was serving in 14th Highland Light Infantry at the time "At 7pm on the 22nd October Sgt Angliss led a raiding party of 14 O.R. through a gap in the enemy wire and found the trench full of Germans. He jumped into the trench and killed two and when overwhelmed by numbers he conducted the retirement of his party in a most able manner. He carried back himself the only wounded man in the party. After doing so he returned to "No Mans Land" and was gone for two hours, under heavy fire, searching for wounded of the raiding party who had gone out on the right, simultaneously with his own.
At 7pm a raid was made by 1 officer and 50 men on the enemy front line in H.19.D. to try and gain identification.The raiding party was split into two groups, one led by 2nd Lieut. Ritchie and the other by Sergeant H Anglis. The parties entered the enemy trench through two gaps in the wire which had been cut by our artillery. The raid was covered by an artillery barrage on the flanks and in the enemy support line. Both parties found the enemy very alert and massed as if about to raid our trenches. Both parties engaged in a bombing fight with the enemy but had to withdraw as the enemy was in greater strength. 2nd Lieut. Ritchie was wounded by machine gun fire and bomb splinters early in the operation and was carried back to our trenches by Lance Corporal Roberts and Private McGlachlan. Sgt Anglis extracated his party with great skill but they were unable to obtain any identification.
1916 Nov 23. Appointed CSM
1916 Nov 27 Sgt Angliss is presented with his DCM by the G.O.C.
1917 Apr 2. 2nd Lt H. Angliss, D.C.M. (R. Innis. Fus.). 15 July 1918, with seniority 2 Apr. 1917. Appointed to a permanent commission in 11th Inniskillings
1917 Jun qtr. Marriage to Ada E Godfrey at Cardiff vol 11a, p 649. But she died in Oct/Dec 1918 aged 29. He remarried very quickly in April 1919 to Ellen Finnerty, just before going to Russia with the British Army.
1917 Dec Army List The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st & 2nd Bn’s 2nd Lieutenant Angliss, H. 2 Apr17 (attached 11th Bn)
1918 Jul 15 Transfers MGC
1918 Oct. 2. 2nd Lt. to be Lt.: R. Innis. Fus.
1918 Dec Qtr death of Ada E Angliss at Cardiff vol 11a p 672 aged 29
1918 Dec Army List The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 1st & 2nd Bn’s 2nd Lieutenant Angliss H; D.C.M., 2 Apr 17 (Employed with Machine Gun Corps)
1919 Apr 12. Henry Angliss married to Ellen C M Finnerty at Wandsworth vol 1d p1470. They did not have had any children before he died. The marriage cert gives him as a 26 year old widower, living at 31 Russell St, Battersea, a Lieutenant in MGC. His father is Sergeant Major Joseph Angliss (deceased) of 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.
He was posted to Russia by the army. They called it " Churchill's War," "The Great Russian Gamble," and "Whitehall’s Folly." More than 600 British and Commonwealth soldiers were killed and wounded there, but unknown now in Britain. No official history was ever written of it, no medals or stars were struck. Britain sent troops to Murmansk and Archangel in northern Russia. They were part of an international force designed to protect Allied interests there during the Russian Civil War, and to offer assistance to those Russian forces fighting the Bolsheviks in that conflict. Although the Inniskillings were not there, included in the British Expeditionary Force was 8th Battalion Machine Gun Corps and 8, 201, 252, 280 Machine Gun Companies. He appears to have been with 8th battalion MGC. There is the diary of a man in the 8th MGC here
1919 May 13 leave by sea from Newcastle
1919 May 20. 8th Batt. MGC was part of British 238th Relief Brigade, Grogan's Brigade, reached Archangel then sailed on for Murmansk
1919 May 27 Landed at Murmansk A detailed itinerary of the MGC in Russia is here
1919 Jun Fri 20th Barrage started 4am which proved successful and then marched back to a captured village called Tropsy. A while after arriving the Bolshies counterattacked but were repulsed with heavy losses
19 19 July 30 Major General Rawlinson appointed to direct North Russia evacuation.
1919 Aug 10. Troitsa on North Divina River Allies undertook action to cover withdrawal from Archangel. Allies suffered 55 casualties. Used artillery 23 guns and mustard gas in addition to HE. Naval forces 5 gunboats, & monitors plus three seaplanes (1 lost) defeated about 6000 Reds (3964 casualties) captured 2164 POWs, 9 guns 5 mortars and 16MG.
1919 Sep 1. N.Russia 16,000 British, 1,400 French and Serb, & 26,000 ‘White’ troops in area.
1919 Sep 9 British begin withdrawal from Archangel covered by rearguard actions.
1919 Oct Sun 5th Anchored out all night in mid-stream at Tilbury
1919 Dec Army List The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 1st & 2nd Bn’s Lieutenant Angliss H: D.C.M. 2 Oct 18 (Employed with Machine Gun Corps)
1919 Dec. 13. Lt. H. Angliss, D.C.M. (R. Innis. Fus.), ceases to be employed with the Machine Gun Corps . Henry James Angliss served in 8th (S) Battalion MGC in North Russia. Apparently when Lieutenant William Genders (also 8th Battalion MGC) returned from Russia he was recruited with another MGC man by Basil Thomson of Scotland Yard for intelligence work in Ireland and that the other man was shot by the IRA. The assumption is this other man was Angliss though there is no proof of this. He was believed to have then returned with the British Expeditionary Force in Russia and went on to serve in Ireland as an intelligence specialist in the South Dublin area.
1920 Mar 17. R. Innis. Fus., H. Angliss, D.C.M., retires, receiving a gratuity.
In spite of the fact that he is gazetted as retiring in Mar 1920, he was a serving officer when shot 8 months later. The glimpses one gets of him in Dublin are from IRA intelligence reports which monitored his movements.
1920 Sept 23. John Lynch, a legal clerk carrying a large sum of money to Collins, was murdered in his hotel bed in the Exchange Hotel in Dublin by the Cairo Gang. Apparently Lt. Angliss, under the influence of drink, divulged his participation in the execution to a girl who inadvertently passed this information to an IIS informant. The porter at the hotel said
...soldiers came to the door of the hotel at two o'clock in the morning, asked to see the register, looked for a name and went to room number six. They left. Nobody heard any sound. And some half hour or so afterwards two policemen came and knocked at the hotel and said to the night clerk: "We are going to guard room number six, where a man lies dying. The military told us to come here." All the next day they stood guard at that room, and did not even admit the proprietor of the hotel into that room. They supposed the man was dying. He was shot in the throat. The military held the inquest.
Angliss had been targeted for assassination due to his role the murder of John Lynch at the Exchange Hotel. Neligan had informed Collins that Baggalley a "one legged" courts martial officer had phoned Dublin Castle telling of Lynch's presence at the hotel - the IRA believed that the actual murder was carried out by Angliss and Peel working undercover. The group of khaki clad men who shot Lynch numbered about 12, and the IRA certainly believed the Angliss and Peel were among them from the inside information that they got from "Lt G" at Dublin castle.
Lt G is believed to be Lily Mernin who worked as a typist at army headquarters. A girl called Lil Dunne also worked in the same office and inadvertently passed on information about the goings on at 22 Lower Mount St. Lil Dunne, the daughter of Superintendent Dunne recently retired from DMP, had moved into lodgings in this house, and was bemused and intrigued by what was going on there with some of the other lodgers. Lil's bother talked to the solders, and apparently one night, after a few drinks Angliss told her brother about his work on raids including the John Lynch raid. Lil Dunne spoke about it at work, and Lt G reported it all back to Collins
Collins had approved an assassination attempt on Angliss and Peel after this. The IRA watched the pair, who rarely went out during daylight hours, unless it was to the the serviceman's club The South Irish Horse in Merrion Square. However they did also occasionally play billiards in the billiard saloon of a Mr Kerr, a Mount Street tobacconist, who had a billiard table in his back room. Dolan and Leonard were the assassins chosen for the job when a tip off told the IRA that Peel and Angliss were in the billiard saloon. They were about to kill the two men playing billiards, when a messenger hurried to inform them that Angliss was back in his room, having just visited a woman above the billiard saloon. Collins decided to postpone their killing until he mounted a bigger operation, now known to be Bloody Sunday.
The following IRA men appear to have been involved at 22 Lower Mount Street The group appears to have numbered 11 on IRA data. It appears that 5 entered the house and the others were on guard outside
They found the man, whose real name was Angliss, the bedroom door was unlocked and he was in bed with the man who became the inquest’s ‘Mr C’. Mr C, who was in fact John Joseph Connolly, testified at Teeling’s court-martial that I was awakened about 9 a.m. by someone shouting ‘Hands up’ when I opened my eyes I saw five men standing at the end of my bed covering me with revolvers. One of the men who appeared to be acting as leader gave the order to keep McMahon and myself covered and he proceeded to search the room. He picked up a civilian coat belonging to McMahon and said ‘ is this your coat McMahon’, McMahon said ‘No.’ He then put his hand in the inside pocket, took out a wallet and said ‘You’re a damned liar ’ and put the wallet in his pocket. He then said ‘where are your guns Mac’. McMahon said ‘look here we are two R[oman] C[atholic]s but the guns are in that bag’. The man then walked over to the bag which was lying in a corner of the room, lifted it on to the table and burst the locks off with his hands and took out three revolvers. They were one service Colt, one Webly-Scott Automatic and one .32 automatic. He put them in his pockets. I then heard firing which seemed to come from the street and I heard a noise as if someone was trying to smash in the front door. A man’s voice on the landing then shouted ‘are you all right there boys. They’re surrounding the house.’ The five men in the room then turned as if to rush out, they went a little way down the room then halted and the man who had been doing the searching raised his revolver – pointed it at the bed and fired. I saw McMahon raise his arm to cover his face and at the same time I threw myself out of the bed on to the floor practically simultaneously I heard other shots ring out from the other men in the room and they all rushed out of the room. McMahon was shot three times in the chest and once in the buttock.
The officer in the next room (Peel) barricaded his door. Seventeen shots failed to penetrate it and he was saved. Outside some passing Auxiliaries had been alerted by the screaming of the maids. Two of their number, Temporary Cadets F. Garniss and C. A. Morris, were sent to Beggar’s Bush barracks for reinforcements. But they were met by some of the IRA guards posted around the house, brought to the garden of 16 Northumberland Road and shot.
After a brief exchange of fire, in which Teeling was captured, all the rest escaped from Lower Mount Street, but not before Tom Keogh stopped to make a date with one of the maids. Denis Begley’s account was a little different from Mr C’s. C. was after all considered a ‘drunkard and a coward if not worse… suffering from shell-shock and neurasthenia ’. There was talk of an illegitimate child with the maid downstairs. Begley’s version was much simpler. Tom Keogh uttered ‘Carry on lads ’ and McMahon was shot dead.
Na Fianna Eireann (Irish Republican Scouts) were on Lower Mount Street that Sunday morning , as 'lookouts' ; one of their members ran into number 22 to tell the eleven-person IRA unit that the British Auxiliaries were on the street - five members of the IRA unit left by the front door , the other six men went out the back-door and walked away up a laneway. These six men were challenged by a number of Auxiliaries and a gun battle ensued - IRA man Frank Teeling was wounded. The wounded Volunteer, Teeling, was captured, but the rest of his unit made good their escape. The IRA men shot their way out through the front of the building, ran down Grattan Street and, according to Leeson, "escaped across the Liffey on a commandeered ferryboat."
Niall Foley, a barrister in Dublin contacted me to add to this that he believed that the member who ran into number 22 was my father - Christopher Foley (1906-1968). He joined Na Fianna Eireann in 1918 at the instigation of his grandfather Matthew Heffernan (born c. 1860) who was a member of the IRB and previously a member of "The Invincibles". My father rose through the ranks of Na Fianna Eireann and was its Director of Organisation and a member of GHQ staff of the IRA (officer commanding Dublin) when he left the Republican Movement in 1932 along with the then Chief of Staff of Na Fianna Eireann - Liam Langley. ...My father did not speak very often about his IRA activities but he did say that he was involved in the attack on the Cairo Gang. He would have been 14 years old at the time and I believe that he was the member you mention because he described to me the shooting of a British agent who was found in bed with another man. He said that it was believed that the man concerned had been put into the agent's room because the house was full the previous night. He went on to say that when the agent was identified, he was shot. The other man was then told that he could "go back to sleep". The description of events was so vivid (and I was about 15 years old when this was related to me) that it could only have been an eye witness account. He did not name the agent but from your account it could only have been Lt. Angliss.
W.S.445 Col. J.J.Slattery
On the evening of 20th November, 1920, the Squad, the Active Service Unit, and a lot of other Volunteers from individual units were ordered to parade at a house in Gardiner Street, I believe. We were addressed there by Dick Mckee, who told us that an operation had been planned for the following morning, Sunday at nine a,m, to eliminate a number of British Intelligence Agents and spies who were residing in houses throughout the city. He had the names and addresses of the men who were to be executed there were members of the Intelligence Section present.
I was assigned to 22 Lower Mount Street, where 2 enemy agents were located. One was Lieutenant McMahon, but I cannot remember the other mans name.
Tom Keogh and myself from the Squad, with six others from "E" Company of the 2nd Battalion, proceeded to Lower Mount Street, at the appointed hour on the following morning,21st November. We knocked at the door and a maid admitted us. We left two men inside the door to see that nobody would enter or leave the house, and the remainder of us proceeded upstairs to two rooms, the numbers of which we had already ascertained. We had only just gone upstairs when heard shooting downstairs. The housekeeper or some other lady in the house had seen a patrol of Tans passing by outside, and had started to scream. The Tans immediately surrounded the house and tried to gain admission.One of our young men, Billy McClean, fired at them through the door and eased the situation for us for a little while, although he got wounded in the hand himself. I think the Tans fired first.
We succeeded in shooting Lieutenant McMahon, but could not gain admission into the room where the other agent was sleeping. There was a second man in McMahon's bed, but we did not shoot him as we had no instructions to do so. We discovered afterwards that he was an undesirable character as far as we were concerned, and that we should have shot him.
We went downstairs and tried to get out but found the British Forces at the front of the house. We went to the back of the house, and a member of "E" Co, Jim Dempsey, and myself got through by getting over a wall. We understood that the rest of our party were following us, but after going a little distance we found we were alone. What actually happened was that Teeling was the third man to scale the wall, and as he got up he was fired on from the house. We were all fired on, but Teeling was the only man who was hit. Teeling took cover in the garden.The other members of our party retired and got safely through the front door in the confusion. It was only hours afterwards that we discovered Teeling was wounded. Dempsey and myself went round by the South Circular Road, and got a wash - up in Goldens house, Victoria Street. We got home safely. Some time before the football match most of us met again, and it transpired that Teeling was on the missing list.
Hansard report says The maid opened the door, twenty men rushed in (the IRA say 11 men), and demanded to know the bedrooms of Mr. Mahon (Angliss) and Mr. Peel. Mr. Mahon's room was pointed out. They entered, and five shots were fired immediately at a few inches range. Mr. Mahon was killed. At the same time others attempted to enter Mr. Peel's room. The door was locked. Seventeen shots were fired through the panels. Mr. Peel escaped uninjured. Meanwhile another servant, hearing the shots, shouted from an upper window to a party of officers of the Auxiliary Division who had left Beggars Bush Barracks to catch an early train southward for duty. These officers at once attacked the house, after dispatching two of their number, Temporary Cadets Morris and Garniss, to their depot for reinforcements. They chased the assassins through the house and captured one whom their fire had wounded (Frank Teeling, was wounded and captured. Teeling subsequently escaped from Kilmainham Jail) and three others, all of whom were armed. Reinforcements on arrival were asked the whereabouts of Morris and Garniss, but replied that they knew nothing, and that the cadets had never arrived at the depot. The reinforcements had arrived after hearing the firing, rather than from being warned by Morris and Garniss.
A badly researched article entitled "Bloody Sunday, a reappraisal" by T Bowden of University of Manchester in European History Quarterly states that Angliss did not appear in Military lists till Oct 1920. In fact Angliss's army career is fairly easy to follow
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Three IRA Volunteers were accused on murdering Lieutenant H Angliss at 22 Lower Mount Street. The three were tried under Field General Court-Martial in January 1921. They were Frank Teeling, William Conway and Edward Potter
Lieutenant Henry James Angliss in Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers died aged 27 on 21/11/1920 Winner of the Distinguished Conduct Medal. husband of Ellen Angliss, of 295, Cannhall Rd., Leytonstone, London. Recorded on Leytonstone War Memorial. His death is recorded in Irish Civil Records Dublin South, Oct - Dec 1920 Vol 2, p 513
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His grave |
His widow |
Buried in a CWGC at Wandsworth (Earlsfield) Cemetery
The Times 21 Nov 1921
11/27 is for 11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
He left no will and this army form records his family living at that date.
There is only this pension card
