1972 Aldershot bombing

{{Infobox civilian attack

|title = 1972 Aldershot bombing

|partof = the Troubles

|image =

|image_size = 300px

|alt =

|caption = Memorial now on the site of the building.

|map =

|map_size =

|map_alt =

|map_caption =

|location = Aldershot Garrison

|target = 16th Parachute Brigade

|coordinates =

|date = 22 February 1972

|time = 12:15 pm

|timezone = GMT

|type = Car bomb

|fatalities = 7 (1 military chaplain, 6 civilians)

|injuries = 19

|perp = Official IRA

|assailant = Noel Jenkinson

|motive = Revenge for Bloody Sunday

}}

{{Campaignbox The Troubles in Britain and Europe|state=collapsed}}

The 1972 Aldershot bombing was a car bomb attack by the Official Irish Republican Army on 22 February 1972 in Aldershot, England. The bomb targeted the headquarters of the British Army's 16th Parachute Brigade and was claimed as a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday. Six civilian staff and a Catholic military chaplain were killed and 19 were wounded. It was the Official IRA's largest attack in Great Britain during "the Troubles" and one of its last major actions before it declared a permanent ceasefire in May 1972. Official IRA member Noel Jenkinson was convicted and imprisoned for his part in the bombing.

Background

The 1969 Northern Ireland riots marked the beginning of the conflict known as the Troubles. To maintain law and order in Northern Ireland the British Army was deployed on to its streets in rioting hot-spots such as Derry and Belfast to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). In December 1969 the Irish Republican Army split into two factions – the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA. Both factions' retaliation against the British Army during the Falls Curfew in Belfast resulted in paramilitary campaigns against the British state's forces commencing.

On 30 January 1972, soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment shot 28 unarmed civilians during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Derry. Fourteen people died, including teenagers. This incident became known as Bloody Sunday and dramatically increased recruitment to the two IRAs.{{cite news |last=Bowcott |first=Owen |date=15 June 2010 |title=The legacy of the Bloody Sunday killings |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jun/15/legacy-bloody-sunday-killings |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=23 February 2017}}

The bombing

The target of the Official IRA bomb was the headquarters of the 16th Parachute Brigade,[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/22/newsid_2519000/2519029.stm BBC – On This Day] elements of which had been involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings. Despite warnings, the 'open' garrison meant there was no security or controlled access to the camp.

A hired Ford Cortina car containing a {{convert|280|lb|kg}} time bomb[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,910209-1,00.html "Northern Ireland: Now, Bloody Tuesday"] Time (6 March 1972) was left in the car park, deliberately positioned outside the officer's mess. The bomb exploded at 12:40 pm{{cite news |last=Woollacott |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Woollacott |date=23 February 2009 |title=From the archives: IRA kills 7 in raid on Paras' English base |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/feb/23/ira-bomb-paras-aldershot-1972 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=23 March 2022}} on 22 February, destroying the officer's mess and wrecking several nearby Army office buildings.

The soldiers who were the intended targets were not present, as the regiment itself was stationed abroad and most staff officers were in their offices rather than the mess. Nonetheless, seven civilian staff were killed[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=22&month=02&year=1972 CAIN – Sutton Index of Deaths – 22 February 1972] –five female staff who were leaving the premises, a gardener, and Father Gerard Weston, a Roman Catholic priest from the Royal Army Chaplains' Department. Nineteen people were also wounded by the explosion. Aside from the priest Weston (38), the others who died during the attack were the gardener John Haslar (58), and civilians working in the Mess at the time, Jill Mansfield (34), Thelma Bosley (44), Margaret Grant (32), Sheri Munton (20) and Joan Lunn (39).{{cite news |last=Murray |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Murray (author) |date=22 February 2012 |title=The forgotten victims of the Troubles |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-forgotten-victims-of-the-troubles |newspaper=The Spectator |access-date=21 July 2015}}

On 23 February, the Official IRA issued a statement claiming that it had carried out the attack in revenge for Bloody Sunday. It added: "Any civilian casualties would be very much regretted as our target was the officers responsible for the Derry outrages". The Official IRA also said that the bombing would be the first of many such attacks on the headquarters of British Army regiments serving in Northern Ireland.

Aftermath

As the bomb had mostly killed civilians, the Official IRA received harsh and widespread criticism. On 29 May 1972, the Official IRA's leadership called a ceasefire[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch72.htm#May CAIN – Chronology of the Conflict – May 1972] and stated that it would only launch future attacks in self-defence. The Aldershot bombing was believed to have been one of the factors that led to this decision.

In November 1972, Noel Jenkinson, 42, a transport manager, was convicted for his part in the terrorist bombing and was sentenced to life imprisonment with the presiding judge Sir Sebag Shaw recommending that he serve at least 30 years. Finbar Kissane, 32, and Michael Duignan, 28{{Cite web |date=14 November 1972 |title=The sawn-off shotgun found on Michael Francis Duignan when he was stopped on the street by Sgt. Thomas Laidlaw of Mitcham Police when patrolling his section with a constable. Duignan was found guilty of having a firearm without certificate. Duignan had set off from his home in Amity Grove, Raynes Park, to dump ammunition, guns and IRA literature in the River Wandle. |url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-crime-terrorism-aldershot-bomb-trial-aldershot-110956715.html |access-date=23 February 2022 |publisher=Alamy |agency=PA Media}} were both convicted of complicity and sentenced to prison terms of 2 years and 2.5 years respectively.{{Cite book|via=Internet Archive|url=http://archive.org/details/RoscCatha|title=Rosc Catha|publisher=Clann na hÉireann|year=1973|volume=1, July/Aug 1973|location=England|pages=4}}{{Cite web |title=The Aldershot Bombing 1972 • The Parachute Regimental Association |url=https://theparachuteregimentalassociation.com/hermes/an-overdue-memorial/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=The Parachute Regimental Association}}{{Cite web |title=Results for 'murder' {{!}} Between 1st May 1972 and 31st May 1972 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1972-05-01/1972-05-31?basicsearch=murder&somesearch=murder&retrievecountrycounts=false&sortorder=score&country=scotland |access-date=2023-12-15 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}

Jenkinson. a Protestant originally from Loughcrew County Meath and a father of four, had been a trade unionist in London.{{Cite web|last=Sinn Féin|first=Dún Laoghaire branch|date=9 October 2015|title=Noel Jenkisindon|url=https://m.facebook.com/SFdunlaoghaire/posts/665449746925392/|access-date=2022-02-23|via=Facebook}} He had also been a member of the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity{{cite news|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ireland/richards-bico.pdf |website=marxists.org |publisher=Sam Richards|title=Notes on the evolution of the B&ICO|date=21 December 2016}} and Clann na hÉireann, an association sympathetic to the Official IRA. The evidence relating to Jenkinson was initially linked to his fraudulent hire (with Kissane) of a Ford Cortina car that was then used in the fatal bombing leading to the subsequent discovery of a case of gelignite found in his garden shed, as publicised at the time.{{Cite web |date=14 November 1972 |title=Gelegnite bombs found in the garage of Noel Jenkinson, 42, of Muswell Hill, north London |url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-gelegnite-bombs-found-in-the-garage-of-noel-jenkinson-42-of-muswell-110956706.html |access-date=23 February 2022 |publisher=Alamy |agency=PA Media}}{{Cite book|last=Jordan|first=Hugh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ABa_ElDm_GUC&dq=aldershot+%22Noel+Jenkinson%22&pg=PT49|title=Milestones in Murder: Defining Moments in Ulster's Terror War|date=2011-10-14|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-78057-374-8|pages=39}}{{Cite web |last=Healy |first=Mick |date=2022-12-11 |title=Wrongful imprisonment of an Irish communist |url=https://socialistvoice.ie/2022/12/wrongful-imprisonment-of-an-irish-communist/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=Socialist Voice}} The trial in Winchester Crown Court lasted 21 days.

In the following years, the larger and more militant Provisional IRA continued its campaign and began to attack military and commercial targets in England.

Jenkinson died in HMP Leicester in 1976 at the age of 46, with heart failure cited as the cause of death. He had been just transferred from HMP Wormwood Scrubs and had written an article expressing support for the Provisional IRA. He was buried at Dean's Grange Cemetery Dublin.{{Cite book |last=Hepworth |first=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xc9AEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Jenkinson+espoused%22&pg=PA39 |title='The Age-Old Struggle': Irish republicanism from the Battle of the Bogside to the Belfast Agreement, 1969-1998 |date=2021-09-15 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1-80085-759-9}}