The 1972 Aldershot bombing was a
car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
attack by the
Official Irish Republican Army
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "socialist state, workers' republic" en ...
on 22 February 1972 in
Aldershot
Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...
, England. The bomb targeted the headquarters of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
's
16th Parachute Brigade
The 16th Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces brigade of the British Army.
It can trace its formation to February 1948, when the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade left the 6th Airborne Division and moved to Germany, becoming part of the Brit ...
and was claimed as a revenge attack for
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday may refer to:
Historical events Canada
* Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
* Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...
. Six civilian staff and a Catholic
military chaplain
A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations.
Although the term ''cha ...
were killed and 19 were wounded. It was the Official IRA's largest attack in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
during "
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...
" and one of its last major actions before it declared a permanent ceasefire in May 1972. Official IRA member Noel Jenkinson was convicted and imprisoned for his part in the bombing.
Background
The
1969 Northern Ireland riots marked the beginning of the conflict known as
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...
. To maintain law and order in Northern Ireland the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
was deployed on to its streets in rioting hot-spots such as
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
and
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
to support the
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC). In December 1969 the
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...
split into two factions – the
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged ...
and the
Provisional IRA
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
. Both factions' retaliation against the British Army during the
Falls Curfew
The Falls Curfew, also called the Battle of the Falls (or Lower Falls), was a British Army operation during 3–5 July 1970 in the Falls district of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The operation began as a search for weapons in the staunchly Irish ...
in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
resulted in paramilitary campaigns against the British state's forces commencing.
On 30 January 1972, soldiers of the
1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment
The 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment (1 PARA), is a battalion of the British Army's Parachute Regiment. Along with various other regiments and corps from across the British Armed Forces, it is part of Special Forces Support Group.
A specia ...
shot 28 unarmed civilians during a
march in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
. Fourteen people died, including teenagers. This incident became known as
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday may refer to:
Historical events Canada
* Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
* Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...
and dramatically increased recruitment to the two IRAs.
The bombing
The target of the Official IRA bomb was the headquarters of the
16th Parachute Brigade
The 16th Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces brigade of the British Army.
It can trace its formation to February 1948, when the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade left the 6th Airborne Division and moved to Germany, becoming part of the Brit ...
,
[BBC – On This Day](_blank)
/ref> elements of which had been involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings. Despite warnings, the 'open' garrison meant there was no security or controlled access to the camp.
A hired Ford Cortina
The Ford Cortina is a medium-sized family car that was built initially by Ford of Britain, and then Ford of Europe in various guises from 1962 to 1982, and was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s.
The Cortina was produced in fi ...
car containing a time bomb
A time bomb (or a timebomb, time-bomb) is a bomb whose detonation is triggered by a timer. The use (or attempted use) of time bombs has been for various purposes including insurance fraud, terrorism, assassination, sabotage and warfare. They ar ...
["Northern Ireland: Now, Bloody Tuesday"](_blank)
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' (6 March 1972) was left in the car park, deliberately positioned outside the officer's mess. The bomb exploded at 12:40 pm on 22 February, destroying the officer's mess and wrecking several nearby Army office buildings.
The soldiers who were the intended targets were not present, as the regiment itself was stationed abroad and most staff officers were in their offices rather than the mess. Nonetheless, seven civilian staff were killed[CAIN – Sutton Index of Deaths – 22 February 1972](_blank)
/ref> –five female staff who were leaving the premises, a gardener, and Father Gerard Weston, a Roman Catholic padre
__NOTOC__
Padre means father in many Romance languages, and it may also refer to:
Music
* "Padre" (song)
People
* A military chaplain
* A Latin Catholic priest
* A member of the San Diego Padres baseball team
Places
* Padre Island, a barrier i ...
from the Royal Army Chaplains' Department
The Royal Army Chaplains' Department (RAChD) is an all-officer department that provides ordained clergy to minister to the British Army.
History
The Army Chaplains' Department (AChD) was formed by Royal Warrant of 23 September 1796; until the ...
. Nineteen people were also wounded by the explosion. Aside from the priest Weston (38), the others who died during the attack were the gardener John Haslar (58), and civilians working in the Mess at the time, Jill Mansfield (34), Thelma Bosley (44), Margaret Grant (32), Sheri Munton (20) and Joan Lunn (39).
On 23 February, the Official IRA issued a statement claiming that it had carried out the attack in revenge for Bloody Sunday. It added: "Any civilian casualties would be very much regretted as our target was the officers responsible for the Derry outrages". The Official IRA also said that the bombing would be the first of many such attacks on the headquarters of British Army regiments serving in Northern Ireland.
Aftermath
As the bomb had mostly killed civilians, the Official IRA received harsh and widespread criticism. On 29 May 1972, the Official IRA's leadership called a ceasefire
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
[CAIN – Chronology of the Conflict – May 1972](_blank)
/ref> and stated that it would only launch future attacks in self-defence. The Aldershot bombing was believed to have been one of the factors that led to this decision.
In November 1972, Noel Jenkinson a transport manager, was convicted for his part in the terrorist bombing and was sentenced to life imprisonment with the judge recommending that he serve at least 30 years. Finbar Kissane and Michael Duignan were sentenced to terms of 2 years and 3.5 years respectively.
A Protestant originally from County Meath
County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...
and father of four, Jenkinson had been a trade unionist in London. He had been a member of the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity was a small British Marxist-Leninist group that left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1963. CDRCU was led by Michael McCreery, the son of General Sir Richard McCreery. CDRCU was sympathet ...
and Clann na hÉireann, an association sympathetic to the Official IRA. The evidence relating to Jenkinson was initially linked to the fraudulent hire of a Ford Cortina car that was then used in the fatal bombing leading to the subsequent discovery of a case of gelignite found in his garden shed, as publicised at the time. The trial in Winchester Crown Court lasted 21 days.
In the following years, the larger and more militant Provisional IRA continued its campaign and also began to attack military and commercial targets in England.
Jenkinson died in HMP Leicester
HM Prison Leicester is a Category B men's Local prison, located on Welford Road in the centre of Leicester, Leicestershire, England. The term 'local' means that the prison holds people on remand to the local courts, as well as sentenced pri ...
in 1976 at the age of 46, with heart failure cited as the cause of death. He had been just transferred from HMP Wormwood Scrubs
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs (nicknamed "The Scrubs") is a Category B men's local prison, located opposite Hammersmith Hospital and W12 Conferences on Du Cane Road in the White City in West London, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's ...
and had written an article expressing support for the Provisional IRA.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldershot bombing
1972 in England
1972 murders in the United Kingdom
1970s in Hampshire
Bombing
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...
Attacks on buildings and structures in England
Attacks on military installations in the 1970s
British Army in Operation Banner
Car and truck bombings in England
Explosions in 1972
Explosions in England
February 1972 crimes
February 1972 events in Europe
Mass murder in 1972
Mass murder in England
Military actions and engagements during the Troubles (Northern Ireland)
Murder in Hampshire
Official Irish Republican Army
Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)
Terrorist incidents in England
Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1972
Building bombings in England
Attacks on buildings and structures in 1972