Bamford & Norden November 2018

From The Archives
THE STAKEHILL TRAGEDY
When men (and women) transgressed
military law in the years around World
War 2 through refusal of orders, going
absent without leave or maintaining
conscientious objection they were sent
to one of two institutions, military
prisons or detention barracks. One
such detention compound was
situated between Rochdale and
Castleton at Stakehill and had the
unenviable reputation of being one of
the harshest institutions of its type in
the country due to its rigours of hard
labour and its tough regime. A number
of men were desperate enough to either
attempt escape or were successful in
escaping detention from there, nine
breaking out of Stakehill in one month
in 1945.
However, it was an event in the
Autumn of that year which hit the
national headlines and drew debates
in Parliament. A soldier, 32 year old
Michael Thomas Hanlon, had been
sent to Stakehill for two years
detention on three charges of being
absent without leave, desertion and
making false representations. Hanlon
was from Dublin and had enlisted in
1942 and again in the Pioneer Corps
in 1943. On October 5th 1945 he was
found dead in his cell hanging by the
Hanlon was given a Dublin burial,
concern was raised about the case and
there was a call for an investigation
into alleged ill-treatment of him at the
barracks.
This was nothing new. Ill treatment
had been suggested on a number of
previous occasions but the case of
Hanlon was brought to the attention
of a curate from Castleton – Uriel Evans
– along with his Vicar, Reverend
Burroughs from St Martin’s Church
and they were disturbed enough to call
for an enquiry following what they felt
to be an inadequate inquest by
Rochdale’s coroner Mr S Turner. Evans
asserted that there was more to
Hanlon’s death than met the eye and
that he had received a number of letters
from the prisoners and ex-prisoners at
Stakehill barracks with allegations of
rough treatment given to Hanlon and
others, saying that they would give
evidence in any court of law. In support
of this, an inquiry was requested by
two Labour MPs, H L Austin the
member for Stretford and Tom Driberg,
the MP for Malden. The Secretary of
State for War promised a full statement
after an enquiry, the allegation being
that Hanlon had been badly beaten and
as a result had died.
neck with his webbed belt. Although
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