Sir,—Joseph McKenna lacks several specifics about the name ‘Cairo Gang’ (HI 34.3, May/June 2026, pp 36–7). The names in the oft-mislabelled photo from the Seán Sexton/Getty images collection are indeed from the National Photographic Archives, Beasley papers, and marked ‘special gang F company Auxiliaries’, but the names come from the Frank Thornton album in Military Archives. The photo was taken in Dublin Castle, in the alley just inside the gate from Dame Street.
The name was first used in Rex Taylor’s 1958 book Michael Collins: the Big Fella, and introduced into the fourth edition of Dan Breen’s My fight for Irish freedom in 1963, not having appeared in the three previous editions. This was discovered during research for my Murder by the throat (2020), and also published in The Irish Sword (2022). The name ‘Cairo Gang’ does not appear in any Bureau of Military History witness statements, in contrast with the name ‘Igoe Gang’, which is widely used. The Cairo Gang were British secret service, all army officers, many of whom had seen service in Archangel in 1919. The establishment document in Kew details their pay rates and grades for some 90 posts.
The intelligence forces included Thompson men, Secret Service, intelligence officers in Auxiliary sections and army regiments, ‘crime special’ men in the RIC, Igoe Gang (identification men who did the shooting at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday) and G men in the DMP. It remains unclear what the special gang of F company did; they may even have worked on propaganda films for Menzies. Basil Thompson’s men, directed from London, included Mulloy, Quinlisk, Digby Hardy and the 1916 spies (‘Chalk’ and ‘Granite’ were George O’Neill of Mercer Street and Maguire of Hardwicke Street) in an establishment of 60.—Yours etc.,
EDWARD J. BOURKE
CAPTAIN WILLIAM LORRAINE, COMMANDER OF F COMPANY, ADRIC
Sir,—The article by Joseph McKenna on the Cairo Gang referred to Captain William Lorraine King MC DCM, the notorious commander of F Company, ADRIC. King died while serving in Palestine in 1942 and was buried in Gaza War Cemetery (plot B.B.9). His name came to mind recently as a result of the conflict in Gaza. In late 2025 it was reported that sections of Gaza War Cemetery had been bulldozed, destroying numerous Commonwealth war graves. Among those damaged was the final resting place of William Lorraine King.—Yours etc.,
RICHARD WILLCOCKS
Hampshire