Award MBE Assistant Superintendent J.M. Flanagan, Palestine Police - Syria 1941

brithm · Apr 21, 2022

Award MBE Assistant Superintendent John Martin Flanagan, Palestine Police - Syria

Assistant Superintendent John Martin Flanagan, Palestine Police Mr. Flanagan was in command of the Palestine Police Motor Transport Company attached to the British Military Forces in Syria from 5th June to 15th July 1941. This detachment consisted of 47 police vehicle sand 86 British police N.C.Os. and men. The Company was called upon to perform a variety of duties:
(1) transporting 850 Senegalese reinforcements to Gahareb during the course of which the Company was heavily dive bombed by enemy aircraft at Dera's;
(2) carrying to the front line water and ammunition for units of the 16th Infantry Brigade;
(3) transporting to the front line details of the Leicesters and the Queens;
(4) In the course of the these duties the Company was constantly under artillery fire and bombing attacks from enemy aircraft. Three members of the Company were wounded, one seriously and another was badly shell shocked. Four trucks, including that in which Mr. Flanagan was travelling, were put out of action by shell fire and had to be temporarily abandoned abandoned but were later recovered by the Police breakdown gang.
Throughout these operations Mr. Flanagan displayed leadership of a high order and is reported to have commanded the Company with much gallantry and to have set a fine example to his men. The General Officer Commanding, British Forces in Palestine, Trans-Jordan and Syria has expressed his appreciation of the valuable service carried out by the unit under Mr. Flanagan's command and has stated that 'their work with the 6th Division and 16th Infantry Brigade during the operations round Damascus was important towards the successful results obtained in the campaign in Syria'.
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WO 373/78/85

British Palestine Police Home Page.

davidbfpo · Apr 21, 2022

He was first commissioned, as an Acting Inspector, into the Palestine Police on 11/9/1929. From: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Blue_Book/XZohN7O-HiAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="John+Martin+Flanagan"+++"Police"&pg=PA489&printsec=frontcover

In 1936 he was an Inspector and gets a mention for handling disorder in The Palestine Police Annual Report. See: https://www.policemuseum.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PPF-1936.pdf

In a 1942 House of Lords debate, a Lord Wedgwood stated:

In connexion with the riots that took place over the last White Paper about two years ago, this same man writes: The Assistant Superintendent of Police (Mr. I. M. Flanagan) was in command. I should explain that this relates to an occasion when the Jews had been allowed to have a procession and to make a demonstration. The writer goes on: He told us: 'They may try to break down the railings of the Law Courts, and that's just what we want them to do. I shall give you the order to charge. Don't hit a man twice; kill him and then get on to the next man. Don't waste two blows on one man. That is something which I have had corroborated from another source. I suggest that that attitude in the Police Force must be absolutely damning to our reputation for impartiality.
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From: PALESTINE POLICE. (Hansard, 15 December 1942)

It appears he was a former member of the Black and Tan / Auxiliaries in Ireland. The article cites the 1942 speech, which does not say this. From: https://cstpv.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2020/03/Hopkins-J.-State-violence-and-public-monitoring-Britain’s-use-of-torture-in-Mandatory-Palestine.pdf

There is a mention (no search facility) in an academic article: 'Sure it's only a Holiday': The Irish Contingent of the British (Palestine) Gendarmerie, 1922-1926

This entry refers to him being awarded the King's Police and Fire Services Medal for Distinguished Service , in June 1946: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37598/supplement/2820/data.pdf and https://www.nevo.co.il/law_html/law21/pg-e-1499.pdf

In October 1946 he was shown on a list in a policing journal as being promoted to Superintendent. From: The Colonial Police, The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles | DeepDyve

On Aug 30 (1947) British Police Inspector John Martin Flanagan was wounded when a band of men who appear to be Arabs fired on the car in which he was driving between Lydda and Tel Aviv. The wife of a British police sergeant, who was riding in the car, also was hit.
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Link: http://cojs.org/august-30-1947-2/

t was impossible to distinguish the planes’ markings with the naked eye, because of low visibility, but J. M. Flanagan, British Police Commissioner of Haifa, confirmed that they were R. A. F. Spitfires, on a strafing mission.
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Link: British Use Planes and Artillery against Jews Attacking Jaffa, NY Herald Tribune, Apr. 29, 1948.

It appears he lived till at least 1955, the "trail goes cold" about his post-Palestine life.

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