The Irish Times newspaper reported on three young musicians who ‘broke out’ of their barracks in Cork and were kidnapped and killed by the IRA. The three soldiers were killed on the 5th of June 1921 at Kilcrea County Cork.
1921 Aug 18. Carson's father, an ex-army man and now a clerk in a Lancs factory, travelled to Ireland in his annual holiday when the factory closed. A later report was sent by Free State Government to British Government in Aug 1921. He wrote to the War Office "At a very lonely place at the end of a long lane leading to a ruined farmhouse" he had " a spot dug up and found the remains of the three poor boys. There were practically only the bones, the six army boots, parts of shreds of the uniforms" He had the remains put in one large coffin and taken to Bandon where they were buried in Bandon Workhouse Cemetery.
Carson then returned to Manchester and told the father's of the two other boys what he had found. Apparently Chapman's parents were "indifferent", but Cooper's parents helped him with some of the expenses he had incurred. . He petitioned the Army to have the bodies brought home, but things move slowly in the British Army
This is wrong to the extent that the third soldier is not Roughley, but Chapman.
1923 Aug. Mr Carson writes to the War Office a poignant letter asking again for something to be done, and that the matter should not be shelved.
1923 Sep 10. The British Government finally act and formally request the Free State Government to exhume the bodies
1924 Sep 8. A year later the bodies were again exhumed and taken to Cork by truck, handed over to a British Colonel Haywood,and taken by HMS Moorfowl to England. They then went to Ashton under Lyne and have standard CWGC headstones. The handing over of the bodies only attracted a few lines in the Irish Press
