'There was what they call a fairly sharp fire fight . . .'

Capt E Gerrard was in Beggar's Bush barracks on the day of the battle at Mount Street Bridge.

"At about four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon some of the Sherwood Foresters arrived in Beggars Bush Barracks - twenty-five - as far as I can remember, untrained, undersized products if the English slums. Sir Frederick Shaw said to me - we were being very badly sniped from the railway bridge, South Lotts Road - 'You take QM Gamble and those men, climb up the railway line and put them off.' I said, 'Very good, Sir'."

He mentions that "the young Sherwoods that I had with me had never fired a service rifle before. They were not even able to load them. We had to show them how to load them."

"We got over the side of the Barracks and through the houses on Shelbourne Road and up on to the railway by a ladder. I was over the wall first, followed by QM Sergeant Gamble. As soon as I got over the wall, at a range of about 200 yards, about eight Sinn Féiners advanced fro the direction of the city to meet us. I saw them coming towards us firing. There was what they call a fairly sharp fire fight. These men were standing up, not lying down. They came out of their trenches to meet us. They were very brave, I remember. They did not know how many of us there might be. The first casualty was QM Gamble. He was shot dead, under the right eye. I was the next casualty. I don't know how many Sherwoods were killed. One of them was wounded on the approach to the railway."

The wounded Capt Gerrard was taken to Portobello Hospital, where he saw Capt Bowen-Colthurst "raging along the perimeter of the walls. Even then I was told he was quite mad". He concludes: "When I was in hospital, the soldiers used to come in and say how many they had shot. These were Irish troops - Irishmen. They were not like the Sherwood Foresters."