Joseph O'Sullivan

Who was Joseph O'Sullivan?

Joseph O'Sullivan along with Reginald Dunne, was a member of the Irish Republican Army, who shot dead Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson on his doorstep at 36 Eaton Place in London on 22 June 1922. He was hanged for the killing on 10 August 1922 at Wandsworth Prison. The event provided the inspiration for the film Odd Man Out.

O'Sullivan's father John was originally from Bantry, County Cork, and had moved to London as a young man where he eventually became a successful tailor. O'Sullivan's mother Mary Ann O'Sullivan was also born in Ireland in Inniscarra, County Cork. O'Sullivan was the youngest of a thirteen children all born in London, although only eleven survived to adulthood. As a boy O'Sullivan attended St Edmund's College, Ware. On 25 January 1915 O'Sullivan enlisted into the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and later transferred to the London Regiment. O'Sullivan served as a British Army lance corporal with the London Regiment during the First World War and lost a leg at Ypres in 1917.

On being discharged from the army in 1918, O'Sullivan was employed by the Ministry of Munitions and, when the war ended, was transferred to the Ministry of Labour where he worked as a messenger.