Four Square Laundry . 48 years ago 2nd Oct 1972

[P-C Association Member/NIVA Merit Award Winner 2017/18 Find all posts View Profile Close P-C]

The Four Square Laundry was a laundry business set up in Northern Ireland by British intelligence. It was a covert operation which collected and inspected suspected IRA members' clothes, looking for chemical remnants.

By collecting clothes of suspected members, British intelligence could inspect them for gun powder, blood, gun oil, and explosives. Important information was gathered, analysed, and then the clothes would be returned the following week, just like a normal laundry business. A lot of information was gathered through this operation through various means, from the van driver chatting to locals, to comparing laundry lists, if a women's husband was known to be dead or in prison, but she was washing men's clothing, then it could likely be a hidden IRA member.

On the 2nd October 1972, one of the vans was ambushed in Belfast by a volunteer branch of the IRA's intelligence unit. A double agent helped them discover the operation. The van was machine-gunned, killing the driver and two British intelligence officers. The female member of the operation, from the Women's Royal Army Corps, ran screaming to a local's house who protected her until a plain-clothed police officer arrived. She hid her involvement with the operation extremely well, so she managed to escape alive. 18 months later, she was the first WRAC to gain a military medal for an undercover operation in Ireland.

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It was an excellent operation which only suffered bad luck through the double agent. Very brave operatives who didn’t deserve to die in such circumstances - GBNF.

[exsapper Old Sweat Find all posts View Profile Close exsapper]

One of those killed was a Royal Engineer who came from Northern Ireland. We were back in Germany when it happened. The Sapper stayed on in Belfast. His parents thought he had left the Army...

[Jock2413 Site Guardian Find all posts View Profile Close Jock2413]

The only confirmed fatality in the ambush in Twinbrook was Spr Ted Stuart who was from Co Tyrone. The claim that other "undercover soldiers" were killed came from the terrorists. They also claimed to have shot several others during two other attacks that took place on MRF covert businesses. As usual, that was all rubbish. Like the false claims, both of those attacks were botched.
Spr Stuart was laid to rest in Strabane Cemetery.

[exsapper Old Sweat Find all posts View Profile Close exsapper]

Thanks Jock. TED if I remember correctly was his initials. He was a member of 16 Field Squadron based in Osnabruck. During 1972 we were deployed in East Belfast, when we returned to BAOR TED stayed on in the MRF. We also lost S/Sgt Banks on that tour, he was shot 5 minutes before a ceasefire due was to come in. The next morning I was on R&R and spent the whole time drunk in East Anglia, I did not go home. I was late going back to Belfast by a few hours, but luckily for me there was rioting going on and the lads returning were stuck on Maidstone before getting back to the unit, so I caught up.