Robert George Curtis, officially the first military fatality during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, is killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on February 6, 1971, becoming the first British soldier to die in the line of duty in Ireland since 1921. The gunman responsible is believed to be Provisional IRA member Billy Reid, who is killed later that year in a gunfight. A total of 705 British soldiers are killed during the Troubles.
156 (Inkerman) Battery, 94 Locating Regiment, Royal Artillery is deployed to Northern Ireland on January 5, 1971 under the command of the 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery. During the first week of February 1971, there is major violence in many Irish republican areas of Belfast when the British Army launches a series of searches for IRA arms. Rioting in the republican area of the New Lodge escalates and reinforcements are summoned. 156 Battery is ordered into the area. Because mobs of rioters are threatening the bordering unionist Tiger’s Bay area, the Battery is deployed along the interface to block them.
A large crowd gathers at the junction of New Lodge Road and Lepper Street. A troop of soldiers from 156 Battery, including Gunner Rob Curtis, are deployed to disperse the crowd. As the troops move to the junction they are attacked with a barrage of stones and bottles by the mob and deploy in “riot-formation” with shields as protection. Subsequently, a nail bomb is thrown at the troops. In the aftermath of the blast the crowd splits allowing a gunman to fire a long burst of automatic fire from a Sterling submachine gun, probably from the base of Templar House. The crowd then reforms, allowing the gunman to escape. Gunner Curtis is hit by a ricochet which passes through the shoulder opening of his flak jacket, penetrating his heart. He dies almost instantly. Four other troop members are wounded, one seriously.
Curtis is, at the time of his death, 20 years old and married for just over a year. His wife is expecting their first child and had just informed him in a letter that he was to become a father. He is laid to rest in West Road Cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He is the first officially recognised fatality that the army suffers as a direct result of IRA actions. Unofficially 21 other military personnel died or were killed before his death. On the morning after his death Sir James Chichester-Clark, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, announces that “Northern Ireland is at war with the Irish Republican Army Provisionals.”
Some sources claim the shots were fired from a Thompson submachine gun, but some eyewitnesses are sure that it was a Sterling submachine gun that was fired. Curtis’s wife is later compensated to the sum of £6500 together with £1500 for her daughter. His daughter is married wearing her father’s wedding ring and later names her son Robert in honour of his grandfather.
seamus dubhghaill 
January 10, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Hi, I was there when this happened. A bad day all round. It didn’t sound like a SMG at the time, much slower and the bullets coming past sounded slow and heavy. We were told it was a Thompson. Most of us had full length shields and batons but no rifles , I had a rifle (sling round wrist so if anyone got the rifle they got me as well) and was on the side of the moving ‘Square’ when we were first shot at. We thought it was a starting pistol it was so comical. Bdr. Redding was shot in the foot. We moved further under heavy stone fire as it were, though there was all sorts coming in. I thought some were using catapults they pinged that hard. We turned into Lepper Street and that is when it happened. At the time we thought Geordie had had a heart attack as we couldn’t see any entry wounds , it was only later found. Someone said it looked like he been jabbed by a pencil up near his shoulder. We all understood it to be a Thompson that had been fired. I can hear the sounds now, I heard them for the last 50 years in dreams. Mad days. We once were volunteered to go and give blood at the hospital. Three of us walked there in civvies with Browning pistols in our inside suit jackets. We were well disguised, not, with our number two haircuts and Forces Tailoring suits all the same design. Dark Days indeed.
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January 11, 2026 at 6:11 AM
Hello, Claire! Thank you for visiting my site and sharing your compelling first-hand experience! Hearing from people such as yourself who experienced an event or knew the subject of a post is a pleasure I had not expected When I started this site ten years ago. Thanks again for sharing and best wishes!
Jim
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January 10, 2026 at 3:32 PM
I’ve just noticed, that is definately not a photo of Geordie, I think it must be a generic one of a Gunner that has got attributed to him.
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January 11, 2026 at 6:14 AM
Thank you for pointing this out! I’m not for certain where I came up with that photo. I will search for another photo of Geordie. If you happen to have one or come across one, please forward to me!
Thanks!
Jim
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January 10, 2026 at 3:36 PM
If you would like a 1st person account of this let me know.
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January 11, 2026 at 6:15 AM
Absolutely! With your permission I could add it as a follow-up to the original post.
Thanks again!
Jim
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January 11, 2026 at 7:20 AM
Jim, this is 2 short extracts from a chapter I wrote for the book “Serving With Pride”. As you can see it is not written documentary style but in a ‘as it felt at the time’. What is missing is that we only found out later that Geordie had been shot, we thought he had a heart attack. The entry wound was likened to a bruise a pencil pushed into the skin would make. Some references say it was a ricochet but the only suggestion where it came from is that we were told at shortly after that the bullet had entered and ricocheted around inside his chest. As far as photos of Geordie go I haven’t any I own, I know the one shown is not of him but there are are a few around that are genuine.
…Then they got the orders to start riot training. For Northern Ireland.
What for? We are an Intelligence Regiment. We were all a bunch of …… , not the hard nuts from an Infantry unit. Well, let’s see if we can have a laugh and maybe we may never get there anyway.
Wrong. They trained using pieces of coke, absolutely no stones as they might have got hurt. Instead they used empty cans of beer and coke. They were steel then, not aluminium ones that would not fly more than a few feet. They formed in squares, Roman style, with the officer and senior NCOs in the middle to be best protected. (How did Gunner Ashton and his mates know that?) Surrounding them were the riflemen with their SLRs and short shields and round the outside were the long shield carriers with batons. Those shields weighed a ton, thank goodness no one even considered Gunner Ashton for carrying one of those. Luckily he had been ‘Best Shot’, or so the medal said, in training and could not miss on the ranges in Germany so, very unlike the army who usually did not do the obvious thing, Gunner Ashton was to be a Rifleman. Carrying a short shield and a short baton as well. The rifles were to be carried in the hands at all times and to ensure this the sling was tied to one wrist so that if the ‘enemy’ got hold of it they had hold of you as well. Gulp!
The Battery was chosen to join with two others under the auspices of a Heavy Regiment R.A.. Off to another German camp for Exercises and Tests to decide where they would be stationed in Northern Ireland. 156 (Inkerman) Battery R.A. drew the short straw by winning the competition. Border and Falls Road. The others got Peace Line and …. Who cares?
I loved the Border. Lying in quick release sleeping bags in ambush near a border station. Frost on the ground and not a sound or light anywhere. But, there’s always a but, we were aware that ‘They’ knew we were there. ‘They’ knew that we knew that ‘They’ knew….. . So, it was pot luck if we were attacked. Unlikely. But even more unlikely was that ‘They’ would attack the Border Checkpoint while we there. Because ‘They’ knew that …… .The highlight was defusing the bomb. But not for the first time I felt the gulf between the others and myself. The radio and tv mast in the middle of nowhere had an almost comic appearance. Sticks of ‘dynamite’ (actually commercial gelignite) were taped to the mast legs. Connecting them were long lengths of white fuse (actually detonating cord) and at their end a battery, detonator and almost comical – a Micky Mouse Alarm Clock with two brass bells on top. My protestations were brushed aside (All that was needed was to cut the ‘Det Cord’ to disarm the system. After all, through my fascination with the rock cuttings Explosives Crews on the construction of the M6 through the Lake District, I was aware of how this all worked. The Sergeant thought otherwise. The Sergeant had watched enough Westerns to know that the fuse wire would ‘fizz’ and blow the ‘dynamite’. So, the best thing to do would be to disconnect the activator, that being the clock which was ticking loudly. So a tug here and a tug there and a throw the clock away. All was ok, except the alarm rang while still in the air. So that was a moment in time, small letters for a small moment?. Two seconds earlier and Mickey would have rung time on half our patrol. I suppose I should have been scared at that point. But even I could see the funny side, so I shrugged a shrug and returned to base at Newry.….
……..The monotony of the grey ship was broken when the Battery was called on to go the New Lodge Road area of Belfast. They were fired on in two separate attacks a short distance and time apart. The first time two from the square were hit. Most were not aware as they thought someone had used a starting pistol.
The second was as the ‘Roman Square’ moved down Lepper Street off Old Lodge Road. Amongst what was thought to be dozens of rioters a gap appeared and then a machine gun was fired at the Troop and one soldier was killed and others wounded. The soldier was the first to be killed in the Troubles. His name was Gunner Robert Curtis.
The first shots sounded like a pistol. Like someone repeatedly pulling a trigger. Perhaps it was a starting pistol, silly to do that as they could get shot for holding something like a gun. Still the stones and half pavers rained in. I’m not sure we were doing any good, plodding down the middle of the street like …. plodding ducks. The noise was incredible, shouts and noise, clanking shields and noise, shouted orders and noise. Just remember you have a rifle. But what use was it? You cannot shoot anyone for just throwing stones. The memories are fading now. I do not even know if it is light or dark. I close my eyes and all I can see are stones in the air. Some stones. So perhaps it is dark? I can hear the noise, the noise of stones and half bricks hitting shields. I can feel something hitting my legs, I do not know what. I can feel we are moving – yet we are frozen in time. We are frozen in time awaiting…. What?
“Whup, Whup, Whup, Whup……” The sound of a stone on a length of rope being swung round by boys at play. “Crack, Crack, Crack, Crack …..” Now that was a sound I knew. Automatic gunfire. The ‘Whup’ means they are shooting at me. I vaguely remember not being too bothered. After all, that is why we are here – to be shot at. I crashed down against a terraced house brick wall corner. Just like a hundred terraced house brick wall corners back home in? Where do I belong, where is home? I suppose I belong here. With my ma… ? Are they my mates? Focus. I know where they are coming from. But I cannot see anything. Why? I cannot remember if it is dark or light, just I cannot see anything. I glance into the street. Someone is lying there. I must go and rescue them. But I must stay and engage the gunman. But I must go and rescue them. Stay, Go, Stay, Go. Stay.
I look but do not see. It is my job to see. I am failing the others. I failed that day. I failed.
As we climbed aboard a truck to leave the area, retreat I suppose, though I am sure no one would ever use that word, one of the lads said he had a sore …. Bum. (put a little more plainly). I was amused, as were others, when we pointed out he had been shot in the ….. bum. A lot more amused than he was. But Geordie Curtis had had a heart attack and died. After all, not a mark on him. What bad luck. Must have been shock of being shot at. I was alright though. I had been shot at, not shot and not had a heart attack. I was alright.
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January 11, 2026 at 7:45 AM
Thank you for sharing! I’ll have to find a copy (physical or digital) of that book! Best wishes!
Jim
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January 11, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Amazon UK have it so perhaps Amazon US do. It is by Craig Jones and is a compilation of Chapters of Servicepeople who were thrown out of the Forces during the LGBT Ban between 1967 and 2000. It is the 25th Anniversary of the ending of the Ban this year so there are lots of events. I’m going later this week to the Imperial War Museum in London where there is to be a presentation of Lord Etherton’s speech that he worte but he died before he could give it. I’m a guest as I did some filming for IWM last year recounting some of what is in my chapter.
On another note, Jim, I am hoping to go to Belfast for the anniversary of Geordie’s death on February 6th. Not anything official, just to visit Lepper Street to see if I can set my mind at rest after all these years. What I would like to do is meet up with some one who was there, not in the Army. It may seem strange, but I have always wanted to know what it felt like for some one ‘on the other side’. A bit like, for US Veterans, going to Vietnam and speaking to Vietnamese Veterans about what happened back in the day. Do you have any contacts at all that may be interested in this, or putting me in touch with someone?
Anyway, I think your site is a marvellous resource. If I can help with anything else I am happy to do so.
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January 11, 2026 at 8:58 AM
Yes! I just checked and Amazon US has it in Kindle and paperback format. I’ll have to get a copy. As for Belfast, I do not personally know anyone living in the area. The few Northern Irelanders that I know are currently living in the States.
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