The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 4

4 THURSDAY, AUGUST 17,2006 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NEWS fact THE 'They that TRENCH weren't his was even DETECTIVES Hitler's distracted regiment' by the Last Night on Television, Page 32 Tears for the families who lived with shame By Amy Igguiden THE announcement by the Ministry of Defence that all 306 First World War soldiers killed for "cowardice" would be pardoned, unleashed a flood in households across Britain. The decision also reignited debates that had lain dormant for years. Daughters and granddaughters, nieces and greatnieces could barely believe had once only whispered that the men names whose. could now be honoured. In London, Gertrude Harris, the 93-year-old daughter of Pte Harry Farr, executed during the Battle the Somme in 1916 for cowardice in the face of the enemy, gave thanks that she had lived to hear the announcement.

Jill Turner, the of Sgt Wall, great for desertion in France after taking cover from enemy fire, spent the day in Eastbourne, East Sussex, weeping and remembering her grandmother, Sgt Wall's sister, who had mourned him and his ignominy all her life. ing all day. I just wish he had She said: "I have he been crybeen exonerated, not pardoned." Marina Brewis, in Stanley, Co Durham, whose uncle Sgt Peter Goggins was executed for deserting despite following orders from an NCO to retreat, said she was overjoyed that a wrong had been put right. But the announcement, released unexpectedly on Tuesday evening, also sparked fervent debate. In the village of Shoreham, Kent, dispute resumed about 19-year-old Pte Thomas Highgate, the first British soldier of war to be executed after deserting at the Battle of Mons.

Parish councillors had voted in 2000 not to inscribe his The firing squad was a cold and brutal end but men perceived as having let down their mates, of running when the heat was on, of allowing their post to be overrun by the enemy because they fell asleep on guard duty, were unloved by other soldiers Shot at dawn: 'a hideous death without drums or trumpets' For pity's sake, don't sanitise the past IT IS difficult to see who will benefit from the Government's decision to pardon Private Harry Farr, shot for cowardice on the Western Front in 1916 and from its promise to pardon the other 305. The soldiers themselves certainly will not benefit, since they are long in their graves. Their families may think that they will benefit but surely all that the pardoning will do is draw attention once again to an unfortunate past which, on reflection, the families may well decide would have been better left in obscurity. The campaigners will certainly feel that they have benefited by this reward for their efforts but that was surely not the point. It is easier to decide who or what does not benefit.

The truth certainly does not. These men, rightly or wrongly, were shot for desertion, or casting away their arms. To decide Historians express unease over pardons By Ben Fenton THE decision by the Defence Secretary Des Browne to seek a blanket pardon for 306 men shot for battlefield offences during the Great War was greeted with unease by many historians and experts yesterdayin one sense it is justified because we know a lot more about the psychological effects of war now than we did then and it would have been treated differently if they had had that information," said Sir Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King's College, London. "But you do have to put it into the context of generals having to persuade large numbers of men to take extraordinary risks and in that context what was done would not constitute unreasonable action." But Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye and the presenter days last to Save Double in save the DFS Sale name on the village's imposing war memorial, after a vigorous campaign led to a row, a referendum of residents and the eventual departure to Gloucestershire of the priest campaign. To resolve the issue, which apparently had the support of 79 per cent of villagers, the council suggested that a space be left on the memorial in the event of a future pardon.

That day has come, and the villagers who leave a backs to the firing posts. The guns lay on the ground. "When the condemned had been attached, the men of the platoon who had not been able to see events, responding to a silent gesture, picked up their guns, abruptly turned about, aimed and opened fire. "They then turned their backs on the bodies and the sergeant ordered 'Quick The men marched right past them, without inspecting their weapons, without turning a head. No military compliments, no parade, no music, no march posy of flowers in honour of Highgate every year believe it can only be a matter of time before he takes his place on the plaque.

David Hutchins, a parish councillor, said: "I feel very strongly that Thomas Highgate's name should go on. The whole business was appalling." The Rev Barry Simmons, the parish priest and former padre to the Shoreham Royal British Legion, who led the campaign, said the council past; a hideous death without drums or trumpets." Harry Farr refused a blindfold and was not quaking as he died. There was no need for mummification, but he was just as dead at the end of it. Perhaps we should also spare a thought for the men who did the killing. The best account comes from the Canadian army, from Deward Barnes, a member of the firing squad that shot Pte Harold Lodge, one of 25 Canadians executed during the war.

"The officer had loaded the Harry Farr: Faced firing squad of a television series about the Great War, called Not Forgotten, said: "This is a recognition of a change of attitude, an acknowledgement lot of those who were shot were just boys suffering from shellshock. "I think it's a good gesture and a sensible thing to do." For Col John Wilson, author of Blindfold and plus 3 years free credit and pay nothing for the first year. Save double, now only Save £791. The Legend coated $788 of Was leather colours £1579. corner at Sale no group, price extra in a cost.

$1185. choice Finance at DFS is free Typical APR think sofas, think dfs Credit subject to acceptance. 3 years free credit from date of order. Rehouse Interchange, Doncaster DN6 7NA 71 stores nationwide. For information visit www.dfs.co.uk had the chance six years ago to lead the way for Britain, "but they missed However, Major Michael Green, the president of the local Legion branch that Rev Simmons had ministered to, said: "Thomas Highgate is already on three war memorials so I don't think there is any reason to put him on ours.

He was not raised here, but was a farm labourer who moved about." Many of the 306 men shot rifles and had left them laying on the ground at our position. We got into position and were warned to fire straight, or we may have to suffer the same fate. "The prisoner was taken out of a car (we saw him get out, with a black cap over his head and guarded) and placed on the other side of the curtain. "If we did not kill him, the officer would have to. 'As soon as the curtain dropped (the prisoner was tied in a chair five paces away from us, a black cap over his heart) we got the order to fire.

Alone, the move towards a pardon by Mr Browne was a political decision. "What we are seeing here is an attempt to reinvent the past to suit today's political correctness," he said. "I think this leaves military law with a big question mark over it because war is not a walk in the park and different rules apply." Martin Middlebrook, author of The First Day of the Somme, said: "I do not with a blanket pardon because there were some right villains among His view was echoed by Dr Keith Lloyd, author of Loos 1915, who felt the decision would strengthen a distorted popular perception of the Great War derived from simplistic school lessons and images from the TV comedy Blackadder. "It's also important to remember that not everyone was like Harry Farr," Dr Lloyd at dawn, who are commemorated at the National Memorial Aboretum in Staffordshire, have made their way on to local war memorials, among them Pte William Watts, of Liverpool and Pte Charles Kirman, of Fulstow, Lincs. Some of the families who have campaigned for a pardon said yesterday that the development necessarily bring 90 years of shame to a conclusion.

By Ben Fenton THE 445 words that Private Harry Farr spoke in his defence in October 1916 were insufficient to save his life, but 90 years later, give or take couple of months, they are enough to save his reputation. The transcript of the proceedings contains a total of only 1,353 words and the hearing took 20 minutes. It was by no means the shortest hearing of its kind during the 1914-18 war. The prosecution produced four witnesses. Pte Farr put forward two, including his own testimony.

He defended himself. But it is clear that even by the rules of his time Pte Farr was denied a fair hearing. The clipped language of the transcript with its military jargon and acronyms, the shortcut words for concepts that slipped out of familiarity decades ago, cannot hide the nature of the justice being meted out on the Somme. But Harry Farr belonged to an army fighting for its survival and in the circumstances, fairness and justice became elastic concepts. They were not top of John Keegan Defence Editor now that they were wrongly judged or wrongly executed does not alter the facts.

Moreover, it will be necessary to keep a record of what was done so that the truth is preserved, leading to a strange situation in which a dead man is judicially exonerated but has a record for committing a serious offence in military la law. This decision threatens to put the Government and the House of Commons, which will make the final judgment, in conflict with the past. At the time, whatever the doubts and hesitations of those in authority, the view prevailing throughout the Army and the the agenda for junior officers, for divisional commanders and certainly not for the deities above them. So it is not surprising that attitudes of the other ranks reflected the contempt for the accused. Those perceived as having let down their mates, of running when the heat was on, of allowing their post to be overrun by the enemy because they fell asleep on guard duty, were wholly unloved.

A French military observer reported on one unknown double execution: "The two condemned were tied up from head to toe like population from which it was drawn was that those condemned had let down their comrades who did not desert or cast away their arms. Such comrades no doubt felt sympathy at an individual level for those sentenced to be shot. Equally, however, they would have taken pride in the fact that they did not fail in their duty themselves. The Ministry of Defence's decision will have a strange effect on the writing of history since it will not be possible to ignore or obliterate the verdicts even though they no longer stand. How much better it would have been had the Ministry of Defence said: "We believe that the sentences were over-harsh and in the light of today's knowledge of combat stress and post-traumatic disorders, would probably not have been handed down today.

However we cannot interfere with historical fact. We are therefore sausages. A thick bandage hid their faces. And, a horrible thing, on their chests a square of fabric was placed over their hearts "The unfortunate duo could not move. They had to be carried like two dummies on the open-backed lorry, which bore them to the rifle range.

It is impossible to articulate the sinister impression the sight of those two living parcels made on me. The padre mumbled some words and then went off to eat! "Two six-strong platoons appeared, lined up with their going to issue a statement regretting that these executions took place but we are going to let the verdicts on which they were passed stand." There would be protests from those who dislike unpleasantness in any form but these people are der to expose to the toaster was nastier than anything on reality TV, which is now thought to be the strongest meat the television public can would be impossible to expose the real facts of the First World War on mainstream television, or even in the tabloid press, which requires truth to be sanitised for public consumption. That is what the 'shot-atdawn' campaigners are really demanding: a sanitised version of the past. Des Browne, who is promising to make quite a decent Minister of Defence, has a duty to deny it to them. One blank and nine live rounds.

It went off as one. "I did not have the blank. The prisoner did not feel it. His body moved when we fired, then the curtain went up. "That was the easiest way for an execution I had heard of.

The firing squad only saw him for a few minutes. "We went back to the Battalion Orderly Room and got a big tumbler of each, and we went back our billets, ate, and went to bed. We had the rest of the day off. "It was a job I never wanted." said. "Some of them simply were running away from the heat of battle and some were repeat offenders who were arrested in civilian clothes, often attempting to return to the United Kingdom.

Prof Gary Sheffield, head of War Studies, Birmingham University, said: "The majority of them were guilty by the standards of the time." Maj Gen Julian Thompson, Brigade Commander in the Falklands and a military historian, said: "We should not allow ourselves to forget that the past truly is another country and a very different one." Malcolm Brown, author of The Imperial War Museum Book of the First World War, said: "We should remember that courage is not an endless reserve, that some of these men were brave men who had simply spent their bank balance of courage and for them such a pardon is surely justified.".