Reginald Dunne

Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunne were convicted of the murder of 58-year-old Henry Wilson and sentenced to death.

They shot him outside 36 Eaton Place, London on 22 June 1922.

Henry Wilson had been a knight of the realm and a Field Marshall. They shot him in relation to the Irish struggle outside his home as he was returning from work. His murder was described as a politically motivated assassination.

It was claimed that the first shot had missed him and that instead of fleeing to the safety of his home he had drawn his sword and advanced on the men, it being noted that his housekeeper saw that his sword was unsheathed. However, that version was not corroborated by witness statements.

Henry Wilson had been earlier picked up by a taxi outside Charing Cross district Station and taken to The Travellers' Club in Pall Mall where he stopped for 5 minutes before then being taken to his home at 36 Eaton Place, arriving at about 2.35pm.

After Henry Wilson got out and was heading to his door the taxi driver said he heard a loud bang and looked round thinking it was a tyre. However, he said that when he looked he saw Henry Wilson flinch his right shoulder. He said that he then saw a man with a revolver in his right hand standing in the road who then fired a second and third shot at Henry Wilson, who then fell face downwards on the pavement.

A maid at 36 Eaton Place said that between 2.20pm and 2.25pm that she had been in the kitchen when she heard a bang and that when she jumped on the kitchen table to look out she saw Henry Wilson lying outside on the pavement. She said she then rushed out and found him on his back in the centre of the pavement.

She noted that his sword had been drawn and lying beside him.

She said that she tried to speak to her but was unable and that they then carried him into the study where he died.

A labourer employed by Westminster City Council said that at about 2.20pm he had been working in the roadway outside 36 Eaton Place when he saw Henry Wilson get out of a taxicab and take a pace across the pavement at which point he heard a report. He said that Henry Wilson then completed the distance across the pavement and had just got his foot on the first step of his house when he heard another shot.

He said that Henry Wilson was then about to put the key in his front door when there was more firing and he fell across the pavement with his head on the kerb.

The labourer said that he then saw a big man with a revolver standing on the kerb about 3 feet from Henry Wilson and actually saw him fire once and then saw another smaller man directly behind the taxicab with a revolver, about 4 yards from Henry Wilson.

The labourer said that he had a shovel with him and that when he went to follow the two gunmen that they warned him to keep back. However, he said that he kept them in sight as they went off until they were captured in Ebury Street. He noted that in Chesham Place that they had got into a passing victoria cab and turned round at the crowd, each firing a shot.

A 15-year-old boy said that he had been in a motor car that his father was driving in Lowndes Place when he saw two men beside a taxi, but couldn't be sure of whether they were trying to get in or out. He said he then heard shouts of:

He said that he then saw them run off down Lowdes Place and into Chesham Place where they tried to get into another taxi, but that when the taxi-driver heard cries of 'stop them', he shut the door to his cab and that the men then ran off into Chesham Street.

The boy said that his father then drove on and picked up a policeman who they took in the taxicab  down to Eaton Place where they saw the two men get out of a victoria and run into West Eaton Place. He said:

He said that when they got to the corner of Eaton Terrace that they saw another policeman run up to the men, who then shot the policeman, causing him to fall. He said that his father then got out of the car to render aid to the policeman and he too was shot in the thigh, but that after that he didn't see any more of the men.

A police constable that had been off duty in plain clothes at about 2.30pm in Gerald Road section house, said that a taxicab came down Chesham Place blowing its horn, which attracted his attention, and that  he and some of his colleagues jumped out of the window and rushed to the corner of Gerald Road and South Eaton Place where they saw Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunne running in the direction of Chester Terrace.

He said:

He said that they then took them to Gerald Road police station.

When he searched Reginald Dunne he found a Sam Browne belt and a holster strapped to his body. Reginald Dunne later said to him:

A divisional police surgeon said that he was called about 2.45pm to 36 Eaton Place and that when he got there he found Henry Wilson lying on his back in the study dead.

He said he had a bullet wound on each side of his chest, a bullet wound through the right leg, the bullet having gone through the top boot, and a further bullet wound to his right wrist.

The pathologist that later examined him said that he had 8 bullet wounds and an abrasion caused by a bullet, with two of the wounds being caused by the same bullet. He gave his cause of death as being wounds on either side of his chest.

When the revolvers that the man had used were examined, they were found to have both been Service revolvers and to have borne the Government mark.

At the inquest, after hearing the evidence, the Coroner said:

He then went on to say that they left Henry Wilson dying on his own doorstep and ran away, but were pursued and captured.

He then went on to describe the chase, saying:

The inquest, on 27 June 1922 then returned a verdict of wilful murder against Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunne and they were committed for trial.

They were tried at the Old Bailey and convicted of murder on 18 July 1922 with no recommendation to mercy and sentenced to death and hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 10 August 1922.

Large numbers of people attended outside the prison on the day of the execution carrying lighted candles and one mourner carrying the Sinn Fein colours. It was also noted that a similar number of people also attended outside Pentonville Prison under the impression that they were to be executed there, and as 8am approached they began to chant the 'Soldiers' Song', but upon being told of their mistake they quietly dispersed.

Around 7am on the day of the execution at Wandsworth, a layman robed in cassock and surplice took up a position in the centre of the road before the gates of the gaol and very soon fifty or more men, women and young girls were kneeling at his feet praying for the souls of the condemned men. The mourners outside the prison gates included two of Reginald Dunne's brothers and two sisters, as well as a brother of Joseph O'Sullivan and three of his sisters. The leader of the service bore a lighted candle and one of the mourner's carried the Sinn Fein colours and after the tolling of the bell, which signified that the men had been executed, the flag was handed to the leader of the service who held it while other prayers were recited. The Irish funeral hymn 'Wrap the old green flag around me', was also sung by the mourners.

The leader of the service noted that he had walked the streets of London all through the night in order that he might be present at the passing of 'their two brothers', adding:

At the time of his murder, Henry Wilson had been the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down, having been elected in February 1922.

Joseph O'Sullivan was initially referred to as John O'Brien, whilst Reginald Dunne was initially known as James Connolly.

They had both previously been in the British Army, with Joseph O'Sullivan losing a leg in combat and Reginald Dunne being wounded in the knee and invalided out.

Their convictions were controversial, with some organisations refusing to call them common murderers, but instead men that died for their country, and others challenging the notion that their act was cowardly as they had sacrificed their lives, given an extraordinary exhibition of military courage in resisting arrest, and showed remarkable dignity and self-possession in court.

It was also noted that they had been denied the right to make a defence at their trial, a defence that they had prepared but which the judge refused to allow to be read out on the grounds that it was an assertion of the right to kill or was intended to be a political manifesto or anarchial propaganda and that by doing so had taken away the jury’s right to consider it and possibly attach to their verdict a recommendation to mercy, or even find them not guilty on the grounds of self-defence.

Their prepared statement read:

The grounds of their appeal were:

1. That the learned Judge was wrong in law in requiring that a statement which the co-defendant Reginald Dunn proposed to make from the dock on behalf of the appellant and himself and which had been committed to writing, should be first submitted to him.
2. That the Learned Judge was wrong in law in refusing to allow the aforesaid statement to be read after it had been submitted to him.
3. That the Learned Judge was wrong in fact in telling the Jury that the aforesaid statement which the Appellant desired to have read was an assertion of the right to kill or was intended to be a political manifesto or was anarchial propaganda.
4. That the Learned Judge was wrong in law in refusing to allow a prisoner who was being tried on a charge of murder to state provocation which he believed he had received.
5. That the Learned Judge was wrong in law in deciding that the facts alleged did not constitute provocation, the decision as to the fact being the sole prerogative of the Jury.
6. That as a result of the Learned Judge refusing to allow the appellant to state the provocation which he believed he had received the jury had no material on which to consider the motives and state of mind of the appellant and whether the alleged provocation was such as would justify them in attaching to their verdict a recommendation to mercy.
7. That the Learned Judge was wrong in law in refusing to return the Manuscript of the aforesaid Statement, the Document not being the property of the Court and not being a Document which could be properly impounded.

Whilst the statement was retained and not allowed as evidence in defence, it was noted that the statement however appeared verbatim in the Irish Independent on 21 July 1922, it appearing that a copy had been retained and passed on to other parties either by the prisoners or their solicitors.

It was also controversial because they were both born in England and had served in the British Army and seen service in the war, and both being severely wounded.

The murder of Henry Wilson was later described as having been the most significant assassination on British soil in 100 years and an event that eventually resulted in Irish Civil War between 28 June 1922 and 24May 1923 on the grounds that without it:

In 1967, following the abolition of capital punishment, the bodies of Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunne were exhumed and returned to Ireland where they were buried in Deans Grange Cemetery, County Dublin. When their bodies arrived in Dublin, they were given an IRA honour guard, which marched along with their two coffins.

During the trial, when the Attorney General made his opening speech, he said:

Henry Wilson was himself born in Ballinalee, County Longford, Ireland on 5 May 1864 to a middle-ranking landowner that had inherited Currygrane in Ballinalee, a 1,200 acres estate where Henry Wilson was born, one of four sons and having three sisters. He attended Marlborough public school between September 1877 and Easter 1880 after which he attempted to join the army as an officer, twice with the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and three times with the Royal Military College, but was rejected. However, he later entered via what was known as the back door by first becoming a militia officer with the Longford Militia, via which after two years he was eligible to apply for a regular commission and sat the army exam in in July 1884 after which he was commissioned into the Royal Irish Regiment but later transferred to the Rifle Brigade.

He later went to India and in 1888 started to study for the Staff College at Camberley from where he graduated in December 1893 and was immediately promoted captain. In 1895 he was made a staff captain, making him the youngest staff officer in the British Army. Later on 11 October 1899 after being appointed brigade major of the 3rd brigade, he was sent to Cape Town following the outbreak of the Second Boer War, and soon after saw action at the Battle of Colenso. He was later involved with operations for other engagements including the Battle of Spion Kop, the Battle of the Tugela Heights and the Fall of Pretoria in June 1900.

He later went to work with the War Office in 1901 and in December 1901 was promoted to Major, in 1903 became an Assistant Adjutant-General and in 1906 to Colonel. He was also appointed as temporary brigadier-general and Commandant Staff College, Camberley where he was responsible for the development of doctrine and also training officers and was noted for having asked a senior class in 1908 to prepare a scheme for the deployment of an Expeditionary Force to France, assuming Germany to have invaded Belgium, which was met with questions asked in the House of Commons when news of it leaked out. The following year he carried out the same exercise making a special note that it was to be done in secret.

In 1910 Wilson became Director of Military Operations at the British War Office where it was believed his most important duty was the planning for deployment of an expeditionary force to France.

In the same year he bought 36 Eaton Place on a 13-year lease for £2,100, his salary then being £1,500. however, the house became a financial burden and he often let it out.

In the winter of 1910-11 he and his staff conducted a great strategical War Game to predict what the great powers would do when war broke out.

He was criticised for his:

And his:

And was accused of filling the War Office with like-minded officers.

When he was asked to prepare a paper arguing that British aid would be necessary to prevent Germany defeating France in a war, he argued that:

However, he was accused by some of having 'cooked' the figures, although other stated that they felt his numbers were not far wrong.

He then spent considerable time between 1911 and the outbreak of war considering the War Plan for the outbreak of war with Germany and in October 1911 went on another bicycle tour of Belgium south of the Meuse, inspecting the French side of the frontier, visiting Verdun and Fort St Michel at Toul.

When intelligence suggested that Germany was preparing for war in April 1912, he inspected the docks at Rouen, had meetings with the French War Minister, visited Chaumont and inspected southern Belgium and the Maastricht appendix.

During the year his thoughts on preparation for war were entertained and he expressed the opinion that the BEF should be required to be deployed immediately after a declaration of war and not six months later and by 14 November 1912 railway timetables were drawn up along with agreements with merchant shipping, for the smooth transfer of the force from Southampton for troops, Avonmouth for mechanical transport and Newhaven for stores. It was argued that his greatest achievement was the provision of horses and transport and other measures that allowed mobilisation to proceed smoothly.

In 1913 he went to France again to observe French manoeuvres and in November 1913 he was promoted to Major General. He also visited France four times to discuss war plans between January and May 1914.

When war broke out on 28 July 1914, he became involved in the initial operation including the Battle of Mons and the BEF retreat. He was noted for having claimed after the war that the Germans ought to have won in 1914 but for bad luck. Following the Battle of Loos there were changes in the staff resulting in Henry Wilson threatening to resign, however, attempts were made to dissuade him after it was thought that he could do less harm in France then in England.

In the spring of 1916 Henry Wilson was given command of IV Corp, nearly 70,000 men. However, following a surprise German attack on 21 May 1916, in which they captured 1,000 yards of the British frontline and against which a planned counter attack failed, Henry Wilson's Corp, which was described as previously having been the most efficient in the army, was found as a result to be much decreased in military value and it was claimed that Henry Wilson had failed as a commander in the field.

Further, during 1916 at the Somme the British troops performed poorly which Henry Wilson put down to inexperience and several divisions were taken away from him and by 18 October he had no divisions at all and had to take two weeks leave in the UK. However, it was later noted that Henry Wilson's preparations had laid the foundations for the successful capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917.

It was said that he had thought that to slog on at one spot on the Somme was dreadfully lacking in imagination, and that he would have preferred a joint offensive by Russia, Italy and Romania in Spring 1917 to draw off 15 or 20 German divisions, allowing the BEF to 'completely smash the Boch line'.

In November 1916 Henry Wilson saw Lloyd George and following his election in December 1916, Henry Wilson was sent as Senior Military Representative on a British mission to Russia in January 1917 with the intention of ensuring that the Russians continued to hold down at least the German forces that they had been holding down at the time.

After his return from Russia the French, following the failure of Nivelle's plan, suggested waiting for the Americans to enter the war. However, Henry Wilson suggested a major attritional offensive like the Somme but with intelligence.

It was said he:

Henry Wilson was soon after offered command of XIII Corp, but he declined and instead took a tour of the French line all the way down to the Swiss frontier after which he met with Haig with whom he agreed on over his plans for a major offensive in Flanders.

He later returned to England in June 1917 where he considered becoming an MP but soon after took up Eastern Command whose headquarters were at 50 Pall Mall in London on 1 September 1917 which enabled him to work closely with the Prime Minister and he was asked to prepare a written paper on Haigs plan that predicted a decisive victory in 1918. After visiting the Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office who held out little prospect of breaking the German Army and the Adjutant-General who warned that the British Army was facing a shortfall of 300,000 men by that time, he wrote that he thought that Haig's assumption that Russia would continue to fight was a large one, and concluded that:

Winston Churchill later commented that:

In October 1917, Lloyd George told Henry Wilson that he was to be the British Military Representative on the Supreme War Council, and that the future of the war rested on his shoulders.

Others agreed, adding that it was the eleventh hour.

Henry Wilson later attended the Rapallo Conference and went on to inspect the Italian Front and ordered the new Italian commander to construct new defensive positions on the River Brenta, although they were not needed as the line of the River Piave held.

In December 1917 he was given the temporary rank of general. He had his staff playa war game in which some of them had reversed their hats pretending to be German, which he demonstrated to important visitors and the contents of which became Joint Note 12. However, many of his predictions for the timing and location of the German offensive proved to be wrong, including his prediction that neither side could win a decisive victory on the Western Front in 1918.

On 19 February 1918 Henry Wilson was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff and one of his first acts was to nearly triple the size of the Tank Corps from 18,000 to 46,000 men.

Whilst Lloyd George was said to have claimed that Henry Wilson had predicted exactly when and where the German Spring offensive would begin, the Michael Offensive, he had in fact only advised that the attack might only develop into a big raid or demonstration and suggested focussing attention on the German threat to Asia. It was further noted that  Further, it was noted that although it was not yet clear in London, that on that one day the Germans captured as much territory as the British had captured in 140 days at the Somme in 1916.

The German advance in all gained 12 miles and captured 600 guns and retreat to the Channel Ports was considered.

The German Georgette Offensive then began on 9 April 1918 and plans were agreed that if the Germans attacked again that the British could retreat south-west, maintaining unity between the British and French armies, but losing Calais and Boulogne, with contingency plans to supply the BEF via Dieppe and Le Havre.

Henry Wilson was then promoted to substantive general on 3 June 1918.

He then submitted a long paper to the War Cabinet in July, recommending that the Allies hold the line, with only limited offensives, for the second half of 1918, and that their future offensives should have ever greater emphasis on artillery, tanks, aircraft and machine guns.

There then came the advance towards the Hindenburg Line and the resulting collapse and surrender of the German forces.

Following the war he was involved in the Versailles Treaty and advised that the German Reichswehr be a voluntary rather than a conscript force, and that the French Occupation of the Rhineland be temporary rather than permanent.

On 31 July 1919 Henry Wilson was promoted to field marshal after having been offered the choice of a promotion or a peerage by Winston Churchill.

Following the war he became involved in a wave of labour unrest and approved the deployment of troops as strike breakers in September 1918 and in September 1919 during a railway strike he noted that he would be left with only 40,000 infantry of whom 12,000 were conscripts and it was noted that many of the strikers, many of whom were ex-soldiers, would be better trained than the authorities.

He also petitioned for the return of troops from overseas, and was noted for at one time asking Lloyd George whether he wanted to be Prime Minister of England or Silesia, and succeeded in having a number of battalions recalled from Silesia, Malta and Egypt, giving him an 80,000 strong paramilitary defence force.

The other significant issue after the war was Ireland, which it was noted was low on the priorities in 1919, with only 15 police killed. The Irish War of Independence started on 24 January 1919 and continued through to 11 July 1921. During this period Henry Wilson advised the Prime Minister on security matters and as matters escalated recommended martial law.

It was said that Henry Wilson became increasingly concerned that there was an unofficial policy of killing IRA men in reprisal for the deaths of pro-Crown forces and communicated in June 1920 that:

In September 1920 he again recommended martial law, in addition to which he wanted lists of known Sinn Feiners published on church doors and wanted to shoot five IRA men for each policeman killed.

Then again after the Bloody Sunday massacre he again urged for martial law and after the killing of 17 Auxiliaries in an ambush at Lilmichael, martial law was declared on 10 December 1920. In February 1921, a new Secretary of State for War was more willing to listen to Henry Wilson's advice and plans were made to send 30 battalions to Ireland, however, a truce was arrived at on 11 July 1921. However, in June 1921 Henry Wilson and Lloyd George ceased speaking to each other.

Henry Wilson resigned from the army on 19 February 1922 and was elected to the Northern Ireland parliament on 21 February 1922 and he was asked to advise the Northern Ireland government on security and advised that an able army officer be appointed to take command of the Constabulary, however, the situation worsened in the first half of 1922 and in Nationalist eyes Henry Wilson was blamed for the Constabulary's stance in the sectarian violence.

It was after his return from Ireland that he was shot at his doorstep on 22 June 1922.