Shot at Dawn memorial honours First World War soldiers wrongly executed

Shot at Dawn, a newly refurbished tribute at the National Memorial Arboretum, honours the memories of hundreds of soldiers who were wrongly executed during the First World War for cowardice or desertion.
Located in East Staffordshire, the memorial pays tribute to the 309 soldiers who were shot by their own side - and were later pardoned.
"This deep and meaningful memorial vividly depicts a tragic tale, full of lessons that remain relevant to this day," said Philippa Rawlinson, director of the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA).
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[@SamK-vk7kb]

A shame that it took 90 years to get that pardon.

[@theweegie123]

The real cowards were behind their desks giving each other medals and titles

[@grahambuckerfield4640]

It was military law left over from the Victorian era, plus (this is not to excuse) a fear of this new and unknown army in the British experience, after 1916 one of mass conscription. Fear that they would not fight. Of all the WW1 combatants, the UK had the highest proportion of senior officers killed in action. General Melchett in Blackadder is great comedy, terrible history. In 1919 just after this terrible war, completely unprecedented, the most popular man in the country, with both the public and veterans, was Field Marshall Haig. This may seem bizarre and beyond our understanding, still he led the campaign for both the British Legion and the Cenotaph. On his death some years later, the funeral was more like one for a monarch, mass crowds included.. The past really is another country, but there must have been anger and disquiet about those shot this way, no repeat in WW2.

[@robertbauer3419]

@@grahambuckerfield4640 "General Melchett in Blackadder is great comedy, terrible history" - and for this brilliant sentence I salute you, Sir!

[@paulwebster7293]

working class should never forget that the idiots that did this to those poor men are still about .

[@JohnHill-qo3hb]

"Living in enlightened times", what will enlightened times reveal about our enlightened times 90 years from now?

[@GrampaSpencersAmazingDentures]

You'll be speaking Urdu and praying five times a day..

[@jimfell7147]

A disgrace, to be remembered. The generals and politicians who allowed, ne encouraged this, need to be named and shamed. These poor souls have been stigmatized for decades, misunderstood and castigated, shameful.

[@jhfdhgvnbjm75]

2:02, 'enlightened times'...We're hardly 'enlightened' with what we do and how we treat people today, one day, far in the future, people will look back on our 'enlightened' times and wonder how we could have been so arrogant and stupid :(

[@Andyb2379]

Disgusting our army did that.

[@grahambuckerfield4640]

Not uncommon then, even within what were, by the standards of the day, democracies albeit imperfect (pre universal suffrage), some did not like the Commonwealth ones, France did. Russia still effectively does. Still, there was considerable disquiet and anger at the time, hence not in WW2.

[@QPRTokyo]

If you study the history of 19th century Army rules for discipline, you will understand that those rules were made for a different type of warfare and were not fit for purpose in the early part of the 20th century. The First World War was nothing like the British Army had ever fought before.

[@robertcumming9227]

Different times mate

[@NobleKnightHouseHepatrax]

Suxh a tragic story of these brave soldiers. May such a thing never happen again

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

Dear God😮. What kind of mental deficiency, or spiritual deficiency, that would allow for such a travesty as this? So very sorry😢

[@AJ-qn6gd]

Hardly “enlightened times” the way our veterans are treated today, the men who have fought for this country should never want for anything ever again but are discarded like rubbish when they leave their service.

[@martinmosdell432]

How can amypne who went through what they went through be cowards ,

[@BumberClarke]

The day people wake up to those at the top and how they treat us a ww1 situation should never happen again my great grandad was hit by shrapnel and left for dead if it wasn’t for a Belgian farmer rescuing him otherwise our whole family wouldn’t exist , and the state of the country today shows their ungratefulness to the working class who fought for it insults our very existence

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

Every class faught for it... In fact the highest rates of casualties were among the junior officers (mostly from the upper class). But if course that doesn't fit your narrative of class struggle...

[@BumberClarke]

@@sergarlantyrell7847 your telling lies the upper class were officers and blew their whistle hand on the revolver “ over the top” if you didn’t you were shot so don’t tell me because your rich and I’m poor your version of facts to make you feel better for being rich when you know Damn well the history

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

@@BumberClarke dude, you know literally nothing about me, fyi I barely make minimum wage... So you going to take all that back? I just think it's stupid to try to judge people based on how much they make or what social class they're from without knowing anything else about them! But then there are ass hats all across the social class spectrum, at the bottom as well as at the top... You've heard a fraction of 1 point of view, many years removed from where you are and you treat that as definitive, why? Because it happens to fit with your pre-existing world view that frames everything around class-struggle? Because you've been encouraged to see the world as "us" vs "them" and derived part of your identity from that, giving you strong biases towards narratives that support your "side"? Such animosity towards people who happen to be born into families who are in different social or economic circles to yours isn't healthy or productive (and is allarmingly close to racism... Predjudice against people because of which parents they were born to and things they have no control over?) Of course that goes both ways, people from richer families being prejudiced against people from working class families to. Either way, it's bad.

[@BumberClarke]

@@sergarlantyrell7847 ok my friend there seems to be a lot going on up there so I apologise if I have insulted your intelligence or pre judged you but really minimum wage 😂😂😂😂 And you speak this way pull the other one chap 😂 good joke really 🤔

[@skittlesandfriends5710]

There is a great World War One movie called Paths of Glory with Kirk Douglas that deals with the execution of innocent French soldiers for cowardice, This is a very haunting memorial to their memories.

[@terrystephens1102]

This is an horrendous failure of the duty of care owed by the military to its troops. These young men need to be remembered and honoured for their sacrifice. 🇬🇧❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@seanlander9321]

Australia was the only complete democracy that fought in WWI, and also didn’t have conscription or executions (but had the highest allied casualty rate). The rest of the world took generations to make laws to equal that level of civilisation.

[@fordhouse8b]

A complete democracy with a hereditary monarch as the head of state, and which treated aboriginals in shameful, abusive, and discriminatory fashion. Also, the “War Precautions Act 1914,” which per an Australian government website: "The law restricted the freedom of groups and individuals thought to be a threat-including those who were critical of Australia’s involvement in the war. Associated regulations required people with connections to enemy nations to register as ‘aliens’. During the war years, many of these ‘aliens’ were interned in camps across Australia. Such an advanced (oops, my apologies, COMPLETE) democracy.

[@MBCGRS]

Absolute rubbish. Many smaller nations sent more troops and suffered higher percentage casualty rates than Australia.

[@seanlander9321]

@@MBCGRS Really? Which ones?

[@seanlander9321]

@@fordhouse8b Oh dear, the apologists for conscription and executions are getting upset.

[@seanlander9321]

@@fordhouse8b The hereditary head of state had no power, all power was and is in the executive. The enemy aliens were interned in communities and paid for their work, same as POWs, again unlike other countries, Australia was generations ahead in its social democracy.

[@alexanderperry1844]

Harsh though it may seem, this is nonsense. Death sentences had to be approved through the chain of command. The vast majority were commuted, so contemporaries must have had good reason to maintain the rest. Executed men were buried amongst their comrades, with only a slight change to the inscription.

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

Yes... I belive it was about 90% in the British army were commuted and most that got it were repeat offenders (or guilty of actual crimes like murder). That said PTSD wasn't well understood and could have been for cowardice... Not that I think you should be excusing conscript soldiers just because they happen to not be brave. But a the end of the day it was a relatively small number (about the equivalent of 1 days fighting), and probably saved a lot more men's lives.

[@michaelplays2449]

An awful thing to happen, as already rightly said ,the Real Cowards where sitting in comfort behind their desks waiting for the OBEs and Knighthoods to arrive . May God Have Mercy On Them All............Shameful

[@ThatsGot]

❤🎉😂😢😮😅

[@Вивсівідстій]

Despicable.

[@450martini]

According to the text of the Armed Forces Act 2006 those executed for military offences during the Great War were to be "treated as if pardoned" in a legal sense the convictions still stand. At the time of the drafting of the Act the Solicitor General was asked to look into the cases of those executed. In the vast majority of cases the convictions were sound and the sentences proportionate with the standards of the day. To say they were wrongfully executed is incorrect. The "pardon" was a symbolic measure to appease a vocal protest group at a time the government was seen as not supporting an army engaged in conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[@Biketunerfy]

It wasn’t just Britain that did this. It was the USA, France and Russia that did this. Russia is even shooting its own soldiers today in Ukraine if they turn back for cowardice. It’s a great shame up on our Army for this heinous act but in retrospect the medical understanding of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) formally known as shell shock hadn’t caught up which resulted in severely injured soldiers getting shot. Artillery shells don’t even have to hit you as shown in Ukraine. Under heavy bombardment the constant concussive blasts from artillery after a while cause your ears to bleed, you lose balance and PTSD sets in. Men get evacuated from dug out shelters routinely because of this type of injury.

[@QPRTokyo]

Case of 19th century rules not fit for the 20th century new warfare.

[@thomassecurename3152]

New unknown tragedy.

[@hiramabiff2017]

OK, things happened in times of war. But when your losing 10-20,000 men a day killed in action, I would love to see how any of you would handle judging a charge of cowardice in the face of the enemy put before you. This is a pointless exercise and waste of public money that would have been better served helping our Afghanistan vets.

[@hmsbelfast2019]

If we don't remember the past we are doomed to repeat it. If we don't remember what a tragedy this was then we risk the repetition of it in future wars.

[@hiramabiff2017]

@@hmsbelfast2019 What utter rubbish. Poignant stuff, but bears no relation to todays reality. No one will get shot for cowardice.

[@stuc734]

Lions led by donkeys. Fear Naught and sleep well in the Green fields beyond 😢

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

Sorry but that's just socio-political rubbish!

[@stuc734]

@@sergarlantyrell7847 So thats your opinion, I have mine and I served my country for 9yrs so let's leave it at that eh

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

@@stuc734 Unless those 9 years experience happened to cover between 1914-1918, I consider it irrelevant for this discussion.

[@stuc734]

@@sergarlantyrell7847 well thats just absurd isn't it that would make me at least 140 yrs old. Point is miscarriages of justice happened and whilst one cannot apply modern military standards on what happened during WW1 my original post was in support of those who were subject to those miscarriages of justice from someone who had served in the military and you obviously have a different point of view, which I can respect. So have a nice day.

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

@@stuc734 well precisely, you weren't alive in the 1st world war, so what would you know of the leadership then? "Lions led by Donkeys" is a phrase to imply the soldiers were competent, but led by incompetent officers. So tell me, how does being in the Army/Navy/whatever for 9 years, in, presumably the 21st century, tell you anything about what happened over 100 years ago? You'd need to ask a historian that specialised in that for that kind of judgement. To paraphrase Nicholas Moran, being an Abrams commander does not make him qualified to give an expert opinion about the Sherman in WW2... Going to archives and reading all the reports does. But serving in a peace time professional army (maybe doing some tours in Afghanistan etc) isn't a qualification for making judgements about the leadership of a conscript armed forces of 6m people, in a full-scale trench war, at a time of rapid technological progress, over 100 years ago. Sorry, but you were the one who tried to pull the "but I was in the military" card while slagging off our WW1 officers.

[@dulls8475]

Who the hell are we to judge if they were wrongly executed or not? Retro virtue signalling at its worse.

[@fordhouse8b]

I’m more offended by the cheapness of the memorial. Were these wooden posts? How shabby will this memorial look in another century?

[@dulls8475]

@@fordhouse8b Maybe we should have a memorial to all those who served and were not shot at dawn?

[@fordhouse8b]

@@dulls8475 Maybe someone should let you in on a little secret, that those memorials already exist?

[@dulls8475]

@@fordhouse8b Tell me where i can find a list on a memorial of those who served please?

[@guyharrison5773]

I'm sorry to say it, but to describe the men as "wrongly" shot is itself quite wrong. I am glad we no longer execute soldiers who fail in their duty, but the fact is that these men were tried and convicted. Retroactively pardoning them is grossly insulting to the overwhelming majority who, scared, bewilderd, hungry and tired, nevertheless did their duty when called upon.

[@yehldyehld]

It literally doesn't matter though.