Roll of Honour of the Royal Irish Rangers

Regimental Roll of Honour...

Ranger William J Best - 1st Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Shot by the OIRA when he was home in Londonderry on leave from Germany. He had left home to make a phone call, and his body was found on waste ground. An OIRA statement said that he had been apprehended in suspicious circumstances, was tried by an IRA court, sentenced to death and executed. He was single and off duty, when he was abducted and murdered

Staff Sergeant Talaiyasi Lalalaba BEM, MID - att 22 SAS

On 19 July 1972 Staff Sergeant Labalaba was a member of the SAS detachment which was responsible for the defence of Mirbat, an important town in Muscat. On 19 July, communist insurgents decided to mount the largest and best planned attack of the whole campaign. The attack commenced with mortar fire at 0530 hrs and for 4 hours the enemy pressed home their attack, during which they infiltrated the town and destroyed the stone defences. The attack was concentrated against the SAS detachment in the town, with whom the enemy closed to grenade range and it was launched with an estimated 250 men. At the commencement Staff Sergeant Labalaba and another Fijian soldier had the responsibility of manning the single 25 pounder gun. Under heavy and accurate mortar fire they covered the 500 yards from the main SAS position to the Dhofar gendarmerie fort where the gun was sited. Quickly and effectively they brought it into action, having only had a minimum of training on the weapon. After some time Staff Sergeant Labalaba was wounded in the face, but this made little difference to his determination to continue firing the gun and at the same time to repel the determined hand-to-hand attacks by small groups of the enemy. The gun kept firing for several hours, Staff Sergeant Labalaba personally directing the gunfire over open sights and at point- blank range. Eventually the other soldier was no longer able to assist owing to the severity of his wounds and finally Staff Sergeant Labalaba was killed instantly by a bullet through the head. The leadership and incredible bravery displayed by Staff Sergeant Labalaba against overwhelming odds contributed to the defeat of the enemy. He was awarded a posthumous Mention in Dispatches.

Major D P Farrell MBE - 1st Bn Royal Irish Rangers (Retired)

Shot and murdered by the OIRA when he was walking his dog near his home in Tyrone, he was the Royal Irish Rangers recruiting officer working fron the Army recruiting office in Omagh.

Captain S Garthwaite MID - att 22 SAS

22nd Special Air Service, was the officer in charge of the British Army Training Team attached to Firquat Al Umri in The Oman. On 12th April 1974 a force consisting of elements of the Muscat Regiment, Sultans Armed Forces, Firquat and the elements of British Army Training Team were deployed on a wadi clearing operation. The operation commenced once the Muscat Regiment's picquets were in place and the Firquat under Capt Garthwaite commenced their search. Contact was made with a group of the enemy in 5 or 6 well prepared positions in the wadi bottom. They were armed with SKS and AK47 rifles and at least one light machine gun. In the initial contact the Firqual leader, his Sergeant Major and a Corporal were killed outright. Captain Garthwaite was seen to charge forward onto the area of the heaviest fire to give cover to the remaining members of the Firquat who were withdrawing. He was last seen firing his M79 grenade launcher and engaging the enemy at point blank range. The position was retaken in the follow up and it was evident that, although wounded, Captain Garthwaite had continued to fire his weapon until he himself was killed. For this action in complete disregard for his own safety, Captain Simon Garthwaite was awarded a posthumous Mention in Dispatches.

Ranger Samuel Gibson - North Irish Militia T/A

Samual was the first T/A soldier to be murdered in N Ireland, he was abducted on the 24th October 1974 as he made his last call on a laundry round in Belfast, he was found in a derelict house and had been shot 8 times in the chest. He was married and off duty at the time , he was abducted and murdered.

Ranger Charles George McLaughlin - 1st Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Killed on Fire Fighting duties on 6th December 1977 on Oldham Road, Newton Heath, Manchester during the firemen's strike (Operation Burberry). The Green Goddess in which he was travelling skidded and lost control, and overturned into a petrol station (due to water slopping about in the rear) while on route to a emergency call which later transpired to be a false alarm,

Ranger Hugh Thompson - 1st Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Killed on Fire Fighting duties on 6th December 1977 on Oldham Road, Newton Heath, Manchester during the firemen's strike (Operation Burberry). The Green Goddess in which he was travelling skidded and lost control, and overturned into a petrol station (due to water slopping about in the rear) while on route to a emergency call which later transpired to be a false alarm,

Warrant Officer 2 Hugh McGinn - 5th(v)Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Shot and murdered on the 28th December 1980 by the INLA at the door of his home in Armagh. Two gunmen fired approx twelve rounds at Hugh as he answered the knock at his door. He was married with six children and he was off duty at the time of his murder.

Sergeant Trevor A Elliot - 5th(v)Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Shot dead and murdered by the IRA as he walked from his shop in Keady to his car, a masked gunman opened fire at close range, Trevor was hit seven times. His job in the TA was a Drummer in the Territorial Army’s Pipe Band. He was married with five children and off duty at the time of his murder.
A senior TA officer said after the killing "We would like to emphasise and stress that we have no involvement in the security situation here in Northern Ireland"

Corporal Trevor May - 4th(v)Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Murdered when an IED placed under his colleague’s car exploded as they left work at the telephone exchange in Newry, at 4:40 p.m. on the afternoon of the 9th May 1984. His colleague, a Major was seriously injured in the blast.

The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the murder, saying that all “Members of the RUC, British Army, UDR and Territorial Army are enemies of the Irish people.”

Lance Corporal Tommy Gibson - 4th(v)Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Murdered by the IRA in Kilrea, Co Londonderry on 9 October 1989 whilst off duty. He was a TA soldier serving with the Recce Pl, 4th (V) Bn Royal Irish Rangers, based at Limavady, in the process of transferring to the RCT (TA) in Ballymoney at the time of his murder.

Ranger Cyril J Smith QGM - 2nd Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Killed by a proxy (HUMAN) bomb at a border check point in Newry on the 24th October 1990. A man was told to drive where the soldiers would be and if he did not comply his two sons would be shot. He was to tell the soldiers they had forty minutes to get clear but within seconds of reaching the check point the bomb exploded. Cyril died a hero instead of running to safety he tried to save his colleagues by running to warn them. He was awarded the Queens Gallantry Medal Posthumously.

Ranger Robert Dunseath - 4th(v)Bn Royal Irish Rangers

Murdered in the Teebane Massacre by PIRA with his civilian work colleagues whilst off duty on 17 January 1992. He, and 7 of his colleagues, were killed in a land mine attack on the firm's van (6 others were seriously injured), returning home from construction work at Lisanelly Army base, Omagh, at Teebane Crossroads, near Cookstown, County Tyrone.

He was a T/A soldier serving with the Recce Pl, 4th (V) Bn Royal Irish Rangers, based at Limavady. He was in the process of resigning in order to spend more time with his young family when he was murdered.