What followed a month of reprisal and intimidation was an upsurge in attacks on the RIC and the military. Aided by the cover of darkness that the autumn evenings provided, the IRA once more upped the ante on the military and met them head on. October 1920 was a month of ambush and shooting recorded in the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive & the Radical Newspaper Archive.

Somewhat unfortunately, the newspaper accounts of raids and ambushes do not always provide intimate details of the dead and wounded albeit names and rank and on some occasion place of birth. One of twenty-four police officers or military killed in October 1920 was RIC Constable Harry Biggs, roll number 73983, who was born in London, England. Aged just twenty- three, Biggs died on 23 October 1920 while driving in a three lorry convoy which was ambushed in Parkwood on the Kings County (Offaly) and Westmeath border close to the town of Moate. Planned by the Westmeath IRA, the ambush on the military convoy was intended to hit three Crossley tenders who had been noted to travel in the direction very frequently. In total, the ambush party manage to shoot at the convoy which carried nineteen policemen, ten of whom were new recruits. Despite the onslaught of bullets which rained down on the convoy only Biggs, the driver was hit seriously and he was instantly killed. The military returned fire and it was said that some of the IRA ambush party were hit and fell injured.

 

Source: Irish Independent 1905-current, 23.10.1920, page 5

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