James L French - kidnapped Auxiliary in 1922 - body never found

[corisande]

I am trying to see if I can get any more on this man

James Leonard French, an Auxiliary kidnapped in Kilkenny on 10 Jun 1921 and whose body does not seem to have been recovered

My notes on him are on this link

Quite odd really the Castle report just reads
"Two Auxiliary cadets from Woodstock, Kilkenny, were fired on at 11am on 10th June 1921 by about a dozen armed civilians near Rower. One of the Cadets escaped and reached his barracks safely, and said that he thought that his companion had been captured by the rebels"

James L French seems to have been written off as dead at that point. He is on the list of missing at the time of the truce. And the British do not seem to have followed up with any requests for his body.

The Independent and the Freemans Journal just print the brief Castle statement above, and I can get no other reference. He is on the Police Memorial as missing presumed dead

Can anyone give me any help with trying to find out what happened to him

[Riojatinto]

I found the attached links but I´m sure you have seen them already, If not the author of the second.  But just in case.......

http://www.policememorial.org.uk/Forces/IRELAND/RIC_Roll.htm

http://www.cairogang.com/other-people/british/adric-killed/french/french.html

Good luck with the search but I would imagine it will be almost impossible to find out what happened for certain.

[corisande]

Yes, the second reference is my own 

The only way anything can be dug out is from local papers that are not on the "Irish Newspapers" bundle on the web, or from local IRA men's memoirs, or Witness statements

Those are probably the things local people could help me with. I am not planning to buy My Kilkenny I.R.A. days: 1916-22:by  James J Comerford: as it is quoted on Amazon at £230, but someonme, for example might have access to it to see if he mentions French

[Riojatinto]

Hi,

This organisation seems to have the memoirs-book that your looking for.  They are based in New York but you could always email them since there is an email address quoted.

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/aia_comerford.html

Good luck!

[corisande]

The other thing that a Kilkenny person might know, is what action actually took place at The Rower on 10 Jun 1921

The brief Castle Press Release indicates that 2 Auxiliaries were fired on by a group of men "a dozen armed civilians".

But having gone through stuff on the web, I can find no IRA reference to an action that day, let alone capturing an Auxiliary

[corisande]

I tried emailing the Local Studies at Kilkenny Library and have not had a reply. I want to see if there was any report of an action on or about that date.

Do they not reply, or do they just take a long time

[Riojatinto]

Who knows!!

You should try the email  address in New York, they allow public access to the document so maybe they will check it for you, especially if they hold the copy in pdf form (easy to search).