Auxiliaries

Auxiliaries, the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), raised from among demobilized officers of the British army in response to the escalation of the Anglo‐Irish War. Recruitment began in July 1920 and by November 1921 some 1,900 men had joined. While nominally under RIC command, outside Dublin the Auxiliaries in fact operated independently. Divided into companies of about 100 men, they were heavily armed and highly mobile. By mid‐1921 fifteen companies were scattered through what were considered the ten most disturbed counties, mainly in the south and west. Recruited hurriedly and with insufficient planning as to their role, the Auxiliaries soon gained a well‐deserved reputation for drunkenness and brutality. Unable to discipline them, their commander, Brig. Gen. Frank Crozier, a former Ulster Volunteer Force officer, resigned in February 1921 The sobriquet Black and Tans was often applied to the Auxiliaries, as well as to British‐born RIC constables, although the two groups were distinctly different. Disbanded in 1922, many Auxiliaries subsequently joined the Palestine police force.

Elizabeth Malcolm