Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War D.S.O., M.V.O. group of eight awarded to Brigadier-General A. H. C. James, South Staffordshire Regiment, who in 1920, presided over the court-martial of Terence MacSwiney, Commander of the Cork No. 1 Brigade, Irish Republican Army, and Mayor of Cork, sentencing him to two years in Brixton Prison, where he died after a gruelling 73 day hunger strike: Subsequently James was advised to resign his commission when a price was placed on his head by Sinn Fein

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; The Royal Victorian Order, M.V.O., Member’s 4th Class, reverse officially numbered ‘959’; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen (Lieut., S. Staff. Rgt.); King’s South Africa, 2 clasps (Cpt. & Adjt., S. Staff. Rgt.); 1914 Star (Capt., S. Staff. R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col.); French Legion of Honour, 4th class, in gold and enamels, generally nearly extremely fine (8)
£2500-3000

D.S.O. London Gazette 18 February 1915.

M.V.O. London Gazette 15 August 1916 (Provost Marshal, 3rd Army; Visit of H.M. King George V to the Army in the Field).

Despatches four times London Gazette 17 February 1915, 22 June 1915, 11 December 1917 and 20 May 1918.

French Legion of Honnour London Gazette 10 October 1918.

Alfred Henry Cotes James was born on 30 August 1873 and was educated at Sherborne, and at Merton College, Oxford. He was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment in the rank of Second Lieutenant on 15 May 1897, becoming Lieutenant 15 September 1899, and serving as Adjutant from 14 August 1901 to 13 August 1904. He served in the South African War 1899-1902, taking part in the operations in the Orange Free State, April to May 1900; in the Orange River Colony, May to 29 November 1900, including actions at Wittebergen (1 to 29 July); in Cape Colony, south of Orange River 1899-1900; served as Adjutant, 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, from 14 August 1901; also in the Transvaal in July 1901; and again in Orange River Colony 30 November 1900 to March 1902, attached to the Army Service Corps (Despatches London Gazette 10 September 1901, and 29 July 1902).

He became Captain, 21 April 1902; was Garrison Adjutant, Eastern Command, 1 April 1908 to 31 March 1912. Captain James served during the Great War as Assistant Provost-Marshal, 3rd Army Corps, B.E.F., 5 August 1914 to 27 October 1915, before being promoted to Major on 26 May 1915, and made Provost-Marshal, 3rd Army, B.E.F., British Armies in France, 28 October 1915 to 2 August 1918; before being created Provost-Marsha, Forces in Great Britain, 4 August 1918, with the Temporay rank of Brigadier-General. He was wounded during the Great War and for his services received the D.S.O., M.V.O., and was four times Mentioned in Despatches.

The following is extracted from The South Staffordshire regimental history: ‘By the beginning of 1920 the 2nd Battalion at Lichfield had rid itself of undesirable officers and other ranks and there was a marked decrease in absence with a corresponding increase in efficiency. This was important, for its next posting was to be as unpleasant as any the long suffering 80th had ever endured in what was officially peace-time soldiering. It moved to Cork at the end of June 1920 and shared Victoria Barracks with the 2nd Hampshires.

Things had of course, been tense in Ireland for many years and the Easter Rebellion of 1916 had made matters worse, so that by 1920 there was virtually a state of civil war in the South between the British Army, which had many loyal Irishmen in its ranks, and the Sinn Feinners. The importation by the latter of professional gunmen from America and the enlistment by the British Government of demobilised and often reckless officers into a special constabulary, known as “The Black and Tans,” enhanced the bitterness and the result was a vicious form of large scale gang warfare. Colonel James was President of a court-martial which convicted the Mayor of Cork [Terence MacSwiney], who afterwards died as a result of a hunger-strike, and a price was put on James’s head by the Sinn Fein. He was advised to resign and was followed by M. B. Savage, who had had all his regimental service in the 2nd Battalion.




The following is extracted from Enduring The Most: The Life and Death of Terence MacSwiney, by F. J. Costello: ‘On 16 August [1920], the court-martial of Terence MacSwiney began, presided over by a Lieutenant-Colonel James. In all, four charges were proferred against him, including the possession of a numerical cipher of the type issued to the R.I.C. MacSwiney’s inaugural speech as lord mayor of Cork was also used against him, and a copy of it introduced into the record. Another document, which was in fact an amended version of a resolution adopted by the Cork Corporation proclaiiming allegiance to Dail Eireann, was presented against MacSwiney as “likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty’.

As the charges against him were proferred, MacSwiney sat in an armchair between two armed soldiers. Weakened already from the effects of his hunger strike, now in its fifth day, he received moral support from an audience which in addition to Muriel [his wife], included his sister Mary, Father Dominic O’Connor, who would serve as his personal Chaplain for the duration of his protest, and Donal O’Callaghan, chairman of the Cork County Council and deputy mayor of Cork. When called to answer whether he was represented by counsel, the lord mayor answered, giving his view of the proceedings: “The position is that I am Lord Mayor of Cork and Chief Magistrate of this City. And I declare this court illegal and that those who take part in it are liable to arrest under the laws of the Irish Republic...”

... During the fifteen minutes in which the tribunal met in private to deliberate, MacSwiney sat and conversed with his wife in Irish. The president then returned and announced a finding that he was “not guilty on the first charge, and guilty on the second, third and fourth”. The following exchange then took place between the lord mayor and the president of the tribunal:

The Lord Mayor: “I wish to state that I will put a limit to any term of imprisonment you may impose as a result of the action I will take. I have taken no food since Thursday, therefore I will be free in a month.”
President: “On sentence of imprisonment you will take no food?”
Lord Mayor: “I simply say that I have decided the terms of my detention whatever your government may do. I shall be free alive or dead, within a month.”

A sentence of two years’ imprisonment was then imposed on Terence MacSwiney. Thus had begun the battle of wills that would soon command worldwide attention, pitting a determined individual against the greatest empire of its time. Unlike the issues which would drive the I.R.A. hunger strikers of six decades later, MacSwiney’s protest was not about political status. Fundamentally, what he objected to was the right of a British court to pass judgement on him at all.’

Terence MacSwiney died at Brixton prison on 25 October 1920, on the 73rd day of his hunger strike.