DURING THE COURSE OF WORLD WAR ONE, BRITAIN EXECUTED 306 BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH SOLDIERS, INCLUDING 25 CANADIANS, 22 IRISHMEN AND 5 NEW ZEALANDERS.


These executions took place for crimes including desertion and cowardice, but remain a source of controversy, 


With many believing they should be pardoned as they were likely suffering from what we now call ‘shell shock’.


Between the start of the war in 1914 and the end in 1918, the British Army identified 80,000 as suffering from symptoms now known as ’shell shock’. 


They all stated that they could not cope with being returned to the front line and so had deserted.


 Once they were caught, they received a court martial and, when sentenced to death, would face a 12-man firing squad.


For many, the idea that someone would be sentenced to death for being unable to cope with the horrors of the front line is abhorrent. 


Many suggest that the drain on morale, constant artillery fire, conditions and constant fear of the unknown would make anyone want to return home particularly when they were watching their friends and colleagues die on a daily basis.


In spite of the horrors faced by soldiers, senior military commanders would not accept this as a reason for any man failing to return to the front line and this was simply considered desertion. 


Commanding officers also felt almost universally that this behaviour should be punished in the harshest possible manor to ensure that others did not follow suit and “flee in the face of the enemy”.


There were few soldiers who wanted to be in the firing squad, and many were forced to take part while they recovered from wounds at base camp - as long as they were able to fire a Lee Enfield rifle. 


There were even some ‘men’ in the firing squad who were under the age of 16, and this was also the case for those who were shot for cowardice.


James Crozier from Belfast was one of the men shot for desertion, aged just 16. Before his execution, he was given so much rum, that he passed out and had to be carried to the place of execution.


 Officers later revealed that they were concerned the soldiers in the firing squad would refrain from carrying out their orders on these grounds.


Another soldiers executed at the age of just 16 was Abe Bevistein, who was shot by firing squad at Labourse near Calais. After being found guilty of deserting his post, he wrote to his mother:

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