Jennifer Thetford-Kay@JenKteach
Today we remember Captain Robert Laurence Nairac GC, murdered by the Provisional IRA on 15th May 1977. Captain Nairac was a British Army officer in the Grenadier Guards. On his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland, serving as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer at Headquarters 3 Infantry Brigade, he was abducted while on an undercover operation from The Three Steps pub in Dromintee, South Armagh, on the night of 14th May 1977.
On 13 February 1979, Nairac was posthumously awarded the George Cross. The citation, as reproduced in The London Gazette, read:
"Captain Nairac served for four tours of duty in Northern Ireland totalling twenty-eight months. During the whole of this time he made an outstanding personal contribution: his quick analytical brain, resourcefulness, physical stamina and above all his courage and dedication inspired admiration in everyone who knew him.
On his fourth tour Captain Nairac was a Liaison Officer at Headquarters 3 Infantry Brigade. His task was connected with surveillance operations.
On the night of 14/15 May 1977 Captain Nairac was abducted from a village in South Armagh by at least seven men. Despite his fierce resistance he was overpowered and taken across the border into the nearby Republic of Ireland where he was subjected to a succession of exceptionally savage assaults in an attempt to extract information which would have put other lives and future operations at serious risk. These efforts to break Captain Nairac's will failed entirely. Weakened as he was in strength—though not in spirit—by the brutality, he yet made repeated and spirited attempts to escape, but on each occasion was eventually overpowered by the weight of numbers against him. After several hours in the hands of his captors, Captain Nairac was callously murdered by a gunman of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who had been summoned to the scene. His assassin subsequently said "He never told us anything".
Captain Nairac's exceptional courage and acts of the greatest heroism in circumstances of extreme peril showed devotion to duty and personal courage second to none."
Nearly five decades later, his remains have still never been recovered, denying his family the dignity of a proper burial. After 49 years, it is time to bring closure to Captain Nairac’s family and to honour his service with the dignity he deserves.
We Will Remember Them
“𝕲𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝖍𝖆𝖙𝖍 𝖓𝖔 𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘, 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖆 𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝖑𝖆𝖞 𝖉𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘.”
#WeWillRememberThem #LestWeForget
