Henry Marion Genochio

1897 Apr 25. born Wandsworth

Educated at King Edward VII Grammar School at Kings Lynn and Strand School at Brixton.

1901 census living at 17, Brynmaer Road, Battersea

1911 census living at Locksley, Tennyson Avenue, King's Lynn

1917 Entered RMA Sandhurst

1917 Graduated from Sandhurst. Served for a while at Chatham

1918 Aug 1. Landed in France. Served on the Western Front, and then the Rhine

1920 Dec 26. Genochio had taken part in a raid in Cahirguillamore, Limerick. This was a major raid in which 5 IRA men died that night, and hundreds of people were taken prisoner and interrogated by the British. Genochio 3 months later received a threatening letter because of his part in the raid

1921 Served in Limerick

1922 Feb 15. Genochio was dressed in plain clothes. He was carrying an identity badge and his revolver.

The sequence of events is :-

• 15 Feb. Genochio had tea with Lt Marshall at their billet, 1 Alexandra Place, Cork. Then after changing went out about 5pm. He was in mufti and carrying a revolver . That was the last he was seen alive by any military witnesses.
• Genochio was arrested by 2 members of the Republican Police in Patrick St, Cork about 9.30pm
• He appears to have been imprisoned the whole time in the Lunatic Asylum, which was being used by the Republican Police as a prison at that time.
• 16 Feb Lt Bagot reported Genochio's absence to Commanding Royal Engineer, 6th Division at about 10.30am
• It appears that Genochio really did attempt to escape. And he was shot by the sentries guarding him.The circumstances surrounding the exact actions at that time are impossible to ascertain. I suspect that the Independent report above is accurate.
• 17 Feb Genochio believed by the British to have been shot about 11 am. The Irish Government confirm the shooting at 10.45. His body was found on the Lee Road, Cork about 200 yards east of the main gate of the County Cork Asylum. He died of 2 bullet wounds to the body
• The likelihood is that Genochio was involved in intelligence operations. Viz his participation in the Cahirguillamore Raid on Dec 26. And viz him "going for a walk" round Cork by himself
• The British had withdrawn to barracks, and the terms of the truce meant that they were not responsible for law and order on the streets of Ireland, and they certainly were in no position to go out in force looking for a missing soldier

The local IRA claimed that he had been arrested by Republican Police for participating in robberies, but no evidence has ever surfaced to substantiate this claim, in fact later the new Irish Government apologised for the accusation. The IRA also claim that he was shot while trying to escape, but a difficult claim to substantiate as both sides tended to make this claim to justify the deaths of prisoners in their hands.

A later letter from the Free State Government to British Government gives the final IRA version of what happened

1922 Feb 20 Hansard. Viscount CURZON (by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he can give the House any information to show how it was that Lieutenant Genochio, of the Royal Engineers, came to be detained by Republicans in the Cork Lunatic Asylum and was afterwards murdered by them; and whether the Irish Provisional Government is in any way responsible? Mr. CHURCHILL The only information yet available in regard to the death of this officer is that he left his quarters in Victoria Barracks, Cork, on the evening of the 15th inst. in plain clothes, to go for a walk, and that nothing more was heard of him until 11 a.m. on the 17th inst., when he was shot dead on the public road near the Cork Lunatic Asylum, about three-quarters of a mile outside the borough boundary.

A Military Inquiry came to the conclusion that he had been shot "because he had been very active in rounding up rebels" during the War of Independence

1922 Feb 22. Buried at Streatham Cemetery

1922 May 15 Probate

1923 Jan 1. The Free State government regard Genochio as a robber who was arrested and tried to escape.

1923 Nov. Notes appear on Genochio's file about the allegations from the Irish Free State that he was involved in robberies. It says that he was in probability murdered within an hour of leaving Barracks, and "unless he was a kleptomaniac, then it can scarcely be supposed that he would have gone out with all those things in his pocket" and goes on to say "not to challenge these grave and inherently improbable allegations seems rather hard on a young officers memory"

1924 Mar 31. The new Free State Government officially apologises for the accusations.

1933 Feb His father dies in London

Castle Intelligence