The Royal British Legion support the SAD Pardons Campaign
The Royal British Legion has now called upon the Government on two separate occasions for the granting of posthumous pardons for the 306 executed soldiers. Their initial demand in 1985 was totally ignored. Now comes news they have renewed their call for clemency.
At their Annual Conference in May 2006 a motion of support was carried by an overwhelming vote. The motion was called by Mr Chris Dovey of the Tenbury and District Branch. At of a crowded hall of some 500 delegates, no more than 30 members voted against.
Preface to the Salisbury Wilts County Branch motion.
Reasons for Inclusion: Simply to right a wrong. These men shot for ‘cowardice’ would no be recognised, in the majority as suffering from combat stress. This Country, together, with the Commonwealth killed over 300 of its own in this war. In contrast the Germans executed 25 and the Americans none.
Effect if Passed: The families of these individuals who have suffered shame, humiliation and embarrassment will at last be able to put the controversy behind them and begin, fully to grieve for the loved ones. The pardon would go a long way towards acknowledging the mistaken view of senior military men and politicians in the past about Servicemen trapped in war.
Main Arguments: It is time, before all those who know of the individuals are themselves dead, to pardon these soldiers. Justice is required for people who were shot for such heinous crimes as, refusing to wear a hat, who fell asleep at their post or were just so terrified they simply could not cope. This is recognised now as combat related stress. For the families this guilty secret has blighted lives well after the end of the war. It is a test of character to be able to face up to and deal with the actions of ones predecessors. These shootings remain one of the grossest unsolved injustices of the last hundred years.
Tenbury and District Branch delegate Chris Dovey.
Proposing the motion that the Royal British Legion press the Government to issue pardons to those Servicemen who were shot at dawn in the First World War for cowardice and desertion.
‘Delegates.
My Branch debated this motion at some length. There was a strong initial feeling that the motion was attempting to change decisions made in the past with the benefit of knowledge to hand in the present. It was thus seen as an attempt to re-write history in hindsight.
However, as the debate developed, the general mood of the meeting changed from the standpoint of wrongly attempting to change a historical decision to one of rightly seeking to correct a grave injustice.
If you visit the ‘Shot at Dawn’ Memorial at the National Arboretum on Cannock Chase I have no doubt, that like me, you would be surprised to find that among those executed were some from far off countries of the Empire, as it was then, who had come to fight on the battlefields of Europe.
I ask you, is it likely that such men, who had travelled for thousands of miles to answer the call to fight for King and Empire were fundamentally cowards? I certainly don’t think so and I don’t believe that most of the others executed for cowardice and desertion were either, many of whom had already been battle hardened for two years or more.
No doubt among the total of 300 plus who received summary execution were a few for whom that sentence may have been seen as a just outcome for the charges against them. But for by far the large majority it was undoubtedly a very harsh and undeserved end to a life spent in its final weeks, and in some cases months and years, in intolerable conditions.
For some it was even documented that they be executed, “as an example to others”,
This was really the most heinous crime of the time, and authorised by senior officer’s who should have known better, and who most certainly should have been more understanding of the terrible ordeal that their men were having to endure.
The families of the executed men, some of who were no more than boys, have had to endure their own terrible ordeal for nearly a hundred years, living with the stain on the lives of their loved ones that they have fought long and hard to have removed. Many members of those families have gone to their own graves with great sadness still in their hearts that they have been unable to achieve their aim.’
