 MI5 files report that the real reason for Cairns assassination was his and his sergeant’s (Tom Wilkin) success in closing the net on Avraham Stern.Cairns and a colleague, Ronald Barker, were assassinated by a remotely-detonated Irgun landmine on 26 August 1939 in Rehavia, Jerusalem, on the orders of then Irgun leader Hanoch Kalai.The Irgun member who detonated the mine was future Israeli politician Haim Corfu.