Death of Bernard Mongan

Bernard Mongan was a British soldier who in 2020 was found dead in Catterick Garrison. Mongan had been missing for three weeks before his absence was noticed after his decomposing corpse was found in his bedroom in his barracks. Before his disappearance and death, there had been reports that Mongan had suffered from abuse from fellow British military staff.

The circumstances of his death were covered in multiple British newspapers and an inquiry was held which found that bullying and failure to notice signs of Mongan's mental health had contributed to his death.

Life

Personal life

Bernard Mongan, often called Bernie, was born in Bristol, England, though he spent most of his childhood in Ireland. The newspaper IrishCentral reported that he had a "“soft southern Irish accent,”

He had 3 children with a woman called Beth who me married and later separated with, though they remained on friendly terms.

Military service

According to the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror, Bernard Mongan first joined the British Army's Irish Guards in 2004 and fought in the Iraq War, and that he later left the British Army in 2012 only to rejoin in 2015 where he joined the Intelligence Corps of the Royal Signals.

According to the BBC, Mongan had allegedly made "an attempt on his own life" in 2016.

2018 assault

In 2018 Mongan was the victim of a serious assault in Catterick Garrison in November 2018. According to the mother of his children Beth, Mongan had been “violently assaulted by two soldiers from Northern Ireland in November 2018.” She went onto say of Mongan:

“...had been bullied quite a bit over the last couple of years. He was beaten up and as far as I am aware it is being treated as a racist incident. There were several other occasions when he felt he was being treated unfairly by senior members of his battalion."

According to Bella Innes, a veteran support worker who had personally known Mongan for a decade, commented on the 2018 attack against Mongan:

“Bernie was intensely bullied. He told me he was beaten up by two Irish Guardsmen because he had a southern Irish accent. He said they called him a terrorist, beat him to the ground and jumped on his head. His face was black and blue. I know he has been bullied a lot in the past.”

Death

Shortly before his death, Mongan began keeping records of his “perceived mistreatment”, according to The Guardian.

He was scheduled to be sent to the British military's 77 Brigade in Berkshire (Hermitage Camp) on the 7 January 2020, however neither Catterick Garrison or hsi new posting noticed that he had gone missing.

Bernard Mongan's decomposing coprse was discovered on the 23 January 2020. His body was found in his room in his barracks. He had been missing for 3 weeks before his body was discovered. The advanced decomposition of his body was reported to have made it difficult to determine the exact cause of his death.

Mongan was 33 years old at the time of his death. His funeral was held on the 20th February in Ossett, West Yorkshire, England.

Legacy

According to the Centre for Military Justice, the death of Bernard Mongan was similar a similar case to the death of Cpl Anne-Marie Ellement in 2011.

In 2020 Mongan's mother, Mary Mongan, began a Change.org petition "to gather support to get reveal the answers in her son's mysterious death" and uploaded a tribute to Mongan's life on Facebook.

The head of the Army Services Group, Brig Edward Chamberlain, released a statement saying ""There were clearly failings in our duty of care to Lance Corporal Mongan. The delay in discovering he was deceased was unacceptable and profoundly regrettable. We are truly sorry that such a situation should have arisen."

According to the BBC, the inquest into his death found that "failings in the proper management of personnel led to the delay in the discovery of L/Cpl Mongan". The same inquest also found that reports of bullying committed against Mongan were not properly investigated.