Private Herbert Aspinall, S/13120 RASC

1905 Aug 29 Born St Clements, Rochdale, Lancashire. Parents James and Sarah Aspinall,

1911 census living at 5 Belgrave St, Heywood

1923 March 29 Enlisted aged 18 years and 55 days at Rochdale for 7 year regular service and 5 years reserve service ‘I’ Supply Company, Based at Chester . S/13120 Private Herbert Aspinall. Occupation Clerk. 59 Boundary Street, Rochdale

1924 Mar 21. An attack on a British party going ashore from Spike Island

• A car with 4 men wearing Irish Free State uniforms stopped opposite the pierhead where British soldiers from Spike Island had just landed
• The men opened fire with a Lewis gun on the British troops, killing Pte Herbert Aspinall and wounding 28 others
• The car then headed out of Queenstown along the High Road past the yacht club. Where they stopped and opened fire on HMS Scythe, a British destroyer
• No casualties were reported among Sycthe's crew.
• The car then disappeared towards Rushbrooke. It was about 7pm by now
• The men were said to be Free State army mutineers and were heared to shout "Up Tobin" as they left town
• Miss Alexandra Ledie, a Queenstown doctor, was the first to reach the soldiers and accompanied the wounded on the launch back to Spike Island
• Pte Aspinall was taken in agony back to Spike Island, and died of woulnds about an hour later
• A British list of the casualties

1924 Mar 27. Herbert Aspinall is buried in Rochdale

1924 May. The Free State government made a substantial effort to find the guilty. They first named as suspects, the "obvious" men, known killers from Cork no 1 Brigade, including Frank Busteed

1924 Oct 29. 7 different men were charged with the murder, but this came to nothing

1925 May 15. A final reference is made to Irish troops searching in Cork, but again nothing happens

British Soldiers died in Ireland