Ralph Cairns (23 October 1907 – 26 August 1939) was a British police officer who was commander of the Jewish Section of the
Palestine Police
The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from Gener ...
's
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of b ...
(CID) until his assassination by
Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
alongside
Ronald Barker.
Cairns was born in Greenock,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. Enrolling in the Palestine Police in 1931, unusually for the time without any previous police service, he was quickly identified as a high-flyer, passing his advanced Arabic exam from a standing start in two years. Cairns was also the first British Policeman to speak fluent Hebrew.
In April 1938, while serving as a sergeant in Haifa, he investigated the deaths of two Arab women and two British Police officers who were killed in a bomb blast on a train. Using his many Jewish friends and contacts he traced the planning of the attack to
Avraham Stern. Stern later would break away from the Irgun. This was the first time the name of Stern had come to the attention of the Palestine Police.
Following this event Cairns was promoted to the rank of Inspector and transferred to Jerusalem where he became Head of Jewish Section in the CID. His opposite number was Inspector Ronald Barker who held the parallel post in Arab Affairs. During his service in the Palestine Police, Irgun accused Cairns of the torture of a number of its members, including Benjamin Zerony and Mordechai Pacho.
The alleged torture of Zerony between 5–8 August 1939 resulted in a Palestine-wide leaflet being distributed by the Irgun announcing he was to be assassinated. Zerony was close to Avraham Stern, but had become concerned when Stern ordered the death of his own Irgun operative for refusing to explode a device to kill British police officer
Geoffrey Morton because there were Jewish children playing in the street. Files released by MI5 in 2017 confirm that, at that time, Zerony was complicit with British Police in providing information about Stern. Later Zerony fled to the USA and returned after an armistice was agreed. MI5 files report that the real reason for Cairns assassination was his and his sergeant’s (Tom Wilkin) success in closing the net on Avraham Stern.
Previous attempts to assassinate Cairns had been made earlier by shooting from the pillion of a motorcycle when he was walking with his German fiancée Marianna Laur in a market. Cairns, using his service revolver pushed his fiancée aside and shot the pillion rider dead with the driver escaping on foot through the town.
Assassination
On 26 August 1939, Cairns and Barker were assassinated by a remotely-detonated Irgun
landmine
A land mine is an explosive weapon, explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically d ...
containing fifteen kilograms of blasting gelatin and five kilograms of metal pieces in
Rehavia
Rehavia or Rechavia ( he, רחביה, ar, رحافيا) is an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood located between the city center and Talbiya.
Since its establishment in the 1920s, the area has always been associated with German-Jewish culture and ...
,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, on the orders of then Irgun leader
Hanoch Kalai
Hanoch Kalai (March 13, 1910 – April 15, 1979) ( he, חנוך קלעי) was a senior leader of Irgun and a co-founder of Lehi, and an expert on the Hebrew language. He was ''Deputy Commander in Chief'' of Irgun under David Raziel and spent thr ...
.
The Irgun member who detonated the mine was future Israeli politician
Haim Corfu
Haim Corfu ( he, חיים קורפו; 6 January 1921 – 23 February 2015) was an Israeli politician, and earlier Irgun member and assassin.
Biography
Corfu was born in Jerusalem in 1921. He studied in religious schools and yeshivas and att ...
. Cairns is buried in the Jerusalem Protestant Cemetery. At the time, the deaths caused outrage in both the Jewish community, where both men had a wide circle of friends, and among the ex-pat population. Articles in the ''Jerusalem Post'' and the ''Jewish Chronicle'' condemned the attacks as an outrage.
Like his nemesis Avraham Stern, Cairns' fiancée was pregnant when he died. Marianna Laur later married an American serviceman and went to live in the United States. However, Laur arranged with the British government for Cairns' daughter (Ralpha) to carry his surname. Laur held a memorial service at her church every year for him until her death in 2001.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cairns, Ralph
1907 births
1939 deaths
Assassinated English people
Assassinated police officers
British police officers
Deaths by explosive device
English people murdered abroad
Male murder victims
People from Tynemouth
British people in Mandatory Palestine