Creation
of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC
Introduction from Chronology
The first member of the Auxiliary
Division of RIC (‘Auxies’) is recruited – his name is Harold Pearsons.
More Detail
The
Auxiliary Division is meant to be an elite paramilitary division of RIC made up
of ex-officers of the British Army, graded as temporary cadets on twelve month contracts and ranked as a RIC Sergeant and paid
twice normal RIC recruits (i.e. paid £1 per day). While the ‘Auxies’ were
formally under Tudor's overall command, according to Curran, they were "a
law unto themselves". Townshend notes that a British cabinet committee had
in May/June rejected a special gendarme proposed by Churchill (because of fears
about discipline) – see May-11-20/1. See also May-31-20/1; Jul-06-20/2;
Jul-10-20/4 and Jul-11-20/2. Tudor announced their creation at the joint
conference of the British cabinet and Irish administration on July 23rd
when recruiting had already started.
No
executive order exists for
their creation and their place in the RIC command structure was not defined.
Tudor wrote again to the Under Secretary on July 28th saying that he
was still working out the role and formation of the Auxiliaries (Leeson (2012),
pg 99).
The
training of the Auxiliaries started out in Hare Park hutted camp on the Curragh
but moved to Gormanstown in October. Eventually, HQ for the Auxiliaries was
Beggars Bush barracks in Dublin. On August 20th, they were placed under
command of Brigadier-General Frank Crozier with Brigadier General E. A. Wood as
his deputy. They were formed into
companies of about 100 men. The O/C was
usually a man who had held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army
and held the rank of District Inspector 1 within the RIC structure. By the end of October, nine companies had
been formed and were stationed throughout the south and west of Ireland. By April 1921, there were fifteen companies
with three stationed in Dublin; three in Cork and the remainder in nine other
counties. The total number who served in
the Auxiliaries (‘Auxies’) was just over 2,000 but with no more than 1,500 at
any one time.
For
further detail, see the very good website dedicated to the Auxiliaries – www.theauxiliaries.com.
Leeson says that there were 19 companies made up of 17 field companies, a depot company at Beggars Bush and a veterans division company of temporary constables. These latter temporary constables, of which there were about 1,000, would seem to have acted as “Batmen, Cooks, etc. but have no status as policemen” but this is not clear (see Leeson (2012), pgs 100 and 109).