Hi my name is Kevin Hicks and welcome to my YouTube channel
the History Squad. Now today's video is very close to my heart it's about uh being shot at dawn,
executions in the British and allied forces during World War One. You see this this subject shot at
dawn it's close to my heart because I was in the British Army, Royal Military Police and I had
nine and a half very good years in that regiment, however when I was in training we were taken
into a regimental museum to show the proud history of our regiment uh except that
in one corner we were stopped and we were shown uh a hangman's rope, a hangman's noose.
And this hangman's noose had been used to execute the last British soldier, execution and I asked
the question I says you know, why do we need to see this you know, why you know, so much detail.
And uh the sergeant who was taking us around he actually says well the reason being is
that one day as a military policeman you may be called upon to execute somebody.
All of a sudden I, oh my goodness me, I might have to execute somebody.
Now first of all if you're a British soldier or commonwealth soldier First World War,
the great war, and you're fighting away um and you are suddenly charged or accused of being a coward
yeah or deserting your post casting away your arms, all these different things that you can be
executed for. You're not just then told, right you guilty you're dead, you are put on trial.
Now if it was in peace time you would have a general court martial and it will be in a
proper courtroom and you will have proper representation um and also you will have
a judge advocate who can oversee the whole thing to make sure the proceedings are legal and fair.
Come the First World War yeah, it all goes to pot. You have a new thing called, well
I think it's a new thing, the field general court martial.
So you are accused, you left your post, you deserted, you ran away. The court is held by
your battalion, not even by your regiment, by the battalion right. Uh no longer do you have
to have colonels and generals involved it can be a major or even a captain if a major is not
uh available. The proceedings will take place in nothing more than a bedroom in a local hotel
so the bench as it were might be in front of a bed. You as the accused are allowed what's called
‘the prisoner's friend’ it's a young officer, a junior officer who is there to represent you.
Now first of all remember this, this is well over 100 years ago, many of those soldiers
were not articulate, they many of them were not that, should we say bright, or um educated,
and there they are against a bench three at least officers educated university.
This is the ruling classes. You're going to be intimidated. The other thing is, very often the
courts resented the fact that you had the right to a prisoner's friend who could give evidence on
your behalf. They hated this and sometimes refused to acknowledge it. This is not right, because it
was a man's life that was at stake. Now being shot at dawn, traditionally the time to shoot them,
it's by firing squad firing squad. They weren't military policemen, they were men from
your own regiment. This is the rifle, the short magazine the enfield rifle, 10 rounds in there.
So there was no particular number you could have six men, 12 men,
they form up and you know, many times before executions the men they just didn't want to be
part of it. It's understandable they're going to be shooting one of their own men. But when
they form up on parade, normally in a secluded garden with a wall behind it and a post fitted
in the ground, they would lay their arms and then they would leave and their presiding
officers would then actually load the rifles. One bullet or one blank. The soldiers would come, back
fall, in pick up their rifles and while they're waiting there, the accused will be brought in
tied to the post, blindfolded and the sentence read out. His battalion will be parading either
just outside so they can see it or very close nearby present arms take aim fire.
I cannot imagine having to do it, but I've actually spoken to a First World War veteran
and I asked him about what he thought about the executions. And he shook his head
,you could see it was a raw subject and then he looked me in the eyes and he says ‘Kevin
at the end of the day how on earth do you think they kept us in the trenches.’
Well I've got a couple of cases here, well in fact three that I
I just want to bring to your attention um it's distressing it is so sad
but hey it's history. The first case I want to share with you uh was a double execution
at the beginning of 1915 um it was Joseph Byers and Andrew Evans of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
What makes this so bad is these soldiers didn't desert from the front line, they didn't cast
their rifles away and run away or anything like that they weren't in the trenches. They failed
to turn up for parade prior to leaving for the trenches. Evans was an old soldier, a reservist
that’d been brought back into the ranks right, uh they've been in a lot of action. But Byers
he'd had two weeks rudimentary training before before being sent to the front,
and he was only 17. That makes him underage for military service.
Now when these guys were captured and sent back to their unit they were put on trial.
Now can you imagine the 17 year old scared to death young Joseph there he's in front of
a row of his peers his betters yeah, and the poor guy pleads guilty to desertion.
Officers actually wrote down I don't think he understands. Well they're going to be executed.
But the battalion knew what was going on these guys are only going to be shot for example and
they didn't want to do it. So, the day of the execution 6th of February 1915, the guys are
tied to the post side by side. The firing squad is led in, the battalion is paraded to witness this.
The command is given, they opened fire. Young Joseph isn't killed, so instead of an officer
coming up and shooting Joseph through the head they get the firing squad to reload
and fire again, but they can't kill him. They can’t, just can’t. These guys, their hearts
must have been breaking apart. On the final volley Joseph is finished off. There is a cop out here,
and this as an ex-military policeman, this really gets to me is they said, well he'd sign
the articles of war, he had signed up so he must accept the military regulations, the punishment.
But surely there should have been some officer somewhere up the line
who said hang on this lad's only 17. He's only had
two weeks training or was it just the fact that uh they were shot for the sake of example.
So the second case we're going to look at is another double execution. Albert INGHAM and Alfred
Longshore both of the 18th service battalion the Manchester regiment. First of all these were good
soldiers, and they fought all the way through the battle of the Somme and it was Alfred Longshore
who had a problem at home. His wife was seriously ill. Now Albert and Alfred were so close,
they had worked together they'd grown up together they were inseparable. So Alfred
has put in for leave, you know, look my wife is possibly critically ill. He was denied leave.
Now the two of them decide they're gonna try and get home, Alfred needs to see his wife, so
they abscond. They are caught on an American ship in Ruen and they’re handed over to the British
and put up for court martial the whole thing goes through and it's the beginning of December 1916
that shot side by side and buried side by side shot at dawn. But then their officers lie,
they don't tell the people back home that these guys have been executed for desertion,
they lie. And this wasn't the first case I've looked at that they just tried to register them
as died of gunshot wounds, died of wounds. Now George Ingham the father of Albert
he's lost his son and after the war he still believing his son died of his wounds
finds out through the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission that Albert was
shot for cowardice, for desertion. George Ingham is so heartbroken. He was asked by
the Commonwealth Wargrave do you want an inscription on his stone on his headstone
and this is what George did “Shot at dawn, one of the first to enlist, a worthy son of his father”.
You can visit that grave, you can visit many of them but I'm going to go on to the third one now.
So this is the third case I'm going to cover uh James Crozier a young lad from Belfast
he was executed on 27th of February 1916. I've known about this case for many many years but
what woke me up to do this particular session of shot at dawn was young James,
because my wife has recently had a DNA tested you know for the ancestry kind of thing
and in people she didn't know she was related to is the name Crozier. And straight away,
wow you know, I wonder if she's related to James Crozier from Belfast well the story
it's it's just heartbreaking he was 16 when he enlisted and his mother is begging him
not to go. Outside the recruiting station there they are Royal Irish Rifles, but the commanding
officer is there he needs troops. Frank Crozier, later lieutenant colonel Crozier and he says to
young James's mother don't worry I'll take care of your lad, I'll look after him. Now what he should
have said was no he's too young he's 16, but no he took him. And young James fights, and he does well
but he is one of the victims caught in a mine explosion, where the trench underneath
them explodes yeah, as the germans have burrowed underneath and he's buried alive.
He recovers, but obviously he's going to be shook up. I mean I've been very close to explosions and
it really does shake up your entire system, and this young lad is in the front line, in the dead
of winter and he wanders to the first aid station, he says grenade's just gone off you know oh no I
really I’m in shock and all that. But the medical officer signs him off you're fit for duty
so he goes back. Now from what I can gather, he didn't cast away his arms, he didn't throw off all
his kit and run away. This is a guy who banged up, doesn't quite know where he is, he goes back. So
Lieutenant Colonel Crozier
has him put on trial and I will tell you, reading as much as I have done into this case,
it was engineered. They're going to shoot him.
It doesn't matter if he's guilty or not they're going to execute him. Now during the trial
medical evidence was missing, good representation was missing.
That's against the fundamentals of our laws. And when the report was sent up,
big lines put through it, he's going to be shot. Not because he's guilty but for the
sake of example. The battalion was close to mutiny over this.
The colonel has made sure that young James he's so drunk, don't forget he's actually underage
yeah to even be in the army. He is so drunk he can't stand up. Now in one of the stories I
read years ago was, they sat him in a chair and and tied the chair to the post. But in the
official report from Lieutenant Colonel Crozier was they had hooks on the post, so they hooked the
semi-conscious James Crozier to the post then tied him blindfolded. If you're going to be executed,
if you look at all of the ways you're going to execute somebody, they've got to be awake,
they've got to be able to understand listen to the charges read out.
Then the firing squad is brought to order present arms, fire.
They didn't kill him. Now Lieutenant Crozier had threatened the young subaltern the night before
that he'd got to do a good job. One of the rumours is that he threatened him that if he didn't shoot
young James through the head, if he had to, he'd be put on a charge for cowardice.
Can you imagine being that subtleton? That junior officer as he walks up to the post and
there is this bloodied young James. Well there's a little twist, apparently he uttered his last
words “mother please mother make it stop” then the young officer blew his brains out.
It's incredible to think that throughout the First World War we had 346 British and uh
commonwealth soldiers executed 346. 309 have been pardoned since, those are the ones who
were executed for desertion cowardice that kind of thing. 37 of them weren't pardoned
because they were convicted of murder. But there's another interesting fact that I picked up, only
10 of death sentences were carried out. Another interesting point is Australia refused to allow
any of their men to be executed good on your Australia.
So we British have a memorial to those shot at dawn, it's at the National
Memorial at the Arboretum in Alrewas, in Staffordshire,
not far from where I actually come from. Now I know this topic, it's incredibly sad,
and I, I hope you appreciate where I'm coming from and I hope you found it interesting. So back to
normality, if you found it interesting, thumbs up. If you're a subscriber hey thanks a million
yeah. If you're not a subscriber, ding that bell because I'll tell you, there's lots of films,
lots of different subjects all coming down the line because I am loving this. And I'm looking
forward to the comments on this particular subject so, thanks very much. Bye for now.