Major Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane, Bt., was a hero to some and a villain to others. His actions in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising set the seal on his military career. Notwithstanding his gallant actions while commanding the attack on the South Dublin Union Workhouse and his acts in notifying the Prime Minister and Lord Kitchener about the British murders of Messrs. Skevington, McIntyre and Doyle, his previously chequered life meant that he was never again employed by the British Army. During the Boer War he had raised a loyal Burgher Force while the District Commandant of Karree but after the War criticised the British settlement of peace in his book Pax Britannica. In 1909 he was Baden-Powell's first London Commissioner of Boy Scouts at the very beginnings of the movement but was forced to resign. As well as being a prolific author, his works included a detailed autobiography Agin The Governments, there is a wealth of information to be found about Sir Francis Fletcher Vane in both primary and secondary sources. His First World War Officer's file alone, in the Public Records Office Kew, runs to two full boxes.

Early Life

Born the heir to the distinguished Vane Baronetcy, Francis Fletcher Vane was educated at Charterhouse, a contemporary of Baden-Powell, and commissioned into the Scots Guards via the 3rd (Militia) Battalion Worcestershire Regiment. However, in his own words his 'experience in that Regiment was extremely unfortunate' and he soon resigned his Commission after being the victim of serious 'ragging', a Guards phenomenon of the early 1880s. He next joined the Submarine Miners, Royal Engineers (Militia) and became involved in the nascent Toynbee Hall, where in 1886 he raised the Working Boy Cadet Corps. This act prompted his lifelong interest in Cadets and, later, scouting.

The Boer War and Loyal Burghers

Sir Francis volunteered to fight in the Boer War and succeeded in getting to South Africa in February 1900 having been appointed a Captain in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, Royal Lancaster Regiment. He was involved in several skirmishes and, after a bout of convalescent leave in England, was appointed the District Commandant of Glen and then Karree in 1901. The Guerilla War still raged and one of Sir Francis's methods of dealing with the constant leakage of information to the Commandos, theft of cattle and general insecurity in the area was to form a Police Force of loyal Burghers. He wrote that his force 'were called the Burghers of Karree, were equipped in khaki, with a Martini carbine, and they wore on their arms a band worked by their wives or sisters with a pepper tree (Karree) as a design'. He won over the confidence of the Boers in his district to such an extent that it only ever received one attack. General Louis Botha said in a speech in Cape Town in December 1902 that 'If all Officers had behaved with the sense of justice and fairness as did Captain Fletcher Vane, much less bitterness would have existed and the settlement would have been earlier'. After being an Intelligence Officer to various columns at the end of 1901 he became a Military Judge in the Court held to try the Cape Colony Boer rebels. On his return to England, Sir Francis was rewarded with an Honorary Captaincy in the Army but his disquiet with the peace settlement led him back to South Africa where he befriended the likes of Emily Hobhouse and General Hertzog. Following his tour he published the anti-government Pax Britannica in 1905.

Baden-Powell and the Boy Scouts

Sir Francis's political career and support of the Suffragettes in the inter-war period is overshadowed by his involvement, and subsequent falling out with, Baden-Powell during the beginnings of the Boy Scout Movement. When he set it up in 1908, B.-P. invited Sir Francis to join him and the latter became the first Commissioner for London. He threw himself into the work and was inordinately successful and highly regarded across the Scouts. However, Sir Francis's manner, and also some unproven personal insinuations against him, prompted a tremendous clash with B.-P.'s two main underlings at the Scouts' Head Quarters which resulted in his dismissal by B.-P. in 1909 - an act which effectively split the Boy Scout Movement. It was nearly disastrous for B.-P. when Sir Francis demonstrated the support he had by becoming President of the rival British Boy Scouts, which by April 1910 numbered some 50,000 scouts. It had far ranging consequences for B.-P., as recorded by his biographer, Tim Jeal: 'The loss of London to Vane and the confusion that had preceded this disaster convinced Baden-Powell that he would have to leave the Army and devote himself entirely to the leadership of his Movement. He resigned his post with the Territorials on 31 March 1910. At 53 he was embarking on a second career which would make him more famous than he had ever been in the years immediately after the Boer War'. In the event, the British Boy Scouts went into decline after Sir Francis's bankruptcy in 1912. Not only had he been funding most of the Scouts' uniforms himself but, as a Lloyds underwriter, was crippled by the losses of the Titanic and Oceana.
First World War and Ireland

Following a sojourn in Italy, where he founded the Italian Boy Scouts, Sir Francis returned to England at the outbreak of hostilities and was gazetted as a Temporary Major in the 9th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers. As with the rest of his life, he attracted controversy and, notwithstanding his competencies in training up his Company, he was ordered by the War Office to relinquish his Commission. He refused to do this and petitioned the King who, on Lord Kitchener's advice, refused to become involved. His relinquishment was gazetted without his acquiescence in January 1916 but, following a question in the House of Commons and high level political involvement, he returned to Ireland as a temporary Captain employed as a Recruiting Officer.

Easter Rising 1916

At the outbreak of the Easter Rising on 24.4.1916, Sir Francis reported to Portobello Barracks, Dublin where he was attached to the Royal Irish Rifles and became Second-in-Command of the defence of the barracks. On the 27 April, he commanded the body of men who went out to relieve an ammunition column that had been held up by rebels. The column and escort was under attack, especially from the South Dublin Union Workhouse where the rebels were commanded by the future President of the Free State, William Cosgrave. Sir Francis undertook to lead an attack on the Workhouse that was successful in silencing the rebel's fire and allowed the convoy to extract itself out of danger. Brigadier-General Maconchy, Commanding 178th Brigade, wrote that 'Major Sir Francis Vane rendered valuable assistance and his dispositions were excellent. I recommend that he should be Mentioned in Despatches and permitted to serve again in his Regiment'. However, Sir Francis, never received his 'Mention' nor served again in the Army in any capacity, outcomes which he attributed to his uncovering of the Skeffington, McIntyre and Doyle executions.

The Murders and Their Aftermath

On 25 April, two days before the relief of the convoy, 14 Irishmen had been arrested and taken to Portobello Barracks. These included Mr. Francis Sheehy Skeffington, a well-known Dublin figure and journalist. Early in the morning of the 26th, Captain Bowen Colthurst ordered three of the men out of their cells and had them shot against the Barracks' wall. It was Sir Francis who discovered that these murders had taken place and were being covered up by the British military authorities. Indignant, outraged and met with obfuscation at every turn, he applied for leave and went straight to London where he informed Lord Kitchener and the Prime Minister's Private Secretary personally about Captain Bowen Colthurst's actions. The murders, the subsequent Court Martial of Captain Bowen Colthurst and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the shooting of the three men in Portobello Barracks are some of the best known and best documented events of the Easter Rising. It was due to Sir Francis's actions that some justice was done but it was his personality and stand against the military machine that finally crippled his military career. Major-General Sir John Maxwell, G.O.C. Ireland, wrote that he was not welcome in Ireland in any military capacity and the War Office dispensed with his services. Sir Francis struggled vainly to rejoin the Army, get to France in any capacity and achieve recognition for his actions but his requests were always denied and his files show that he was being observed by M.I.5 and his letters intercepted. At the end of the War he returned to Italy where he died in 1937, the Baronetcy becoming extinct.

References: Agin The Governments, by Sir Francis Fletcher Vane (1929); 1916 Rebellion Handbook (1916, republished 1998); Baden-Powell, by Tim Jeal (1989); Major Sir Francis Fletcher Vane's Officer Files in the Public Records Office, WO 339 13388 and 13389.