A news item on the CBC announced that Britan is expected to announce on Wednesday that they are seeking a Royal Pardon for some 306 Commonwealth soldiers executed for cowardice or desertion during the Great War. This includes 23 Canadian soldiers executed at that time. Two others were executed during the war for murder. Canada went along with the executions at the time, despite the fact that many were the result of "shell shock" (what we now call post-traumatic stress syndrome). It is a pity that we didn’t follow Australia’s lead and refuse to execute our soldiers.
I remember my Grandpa telling me of one such execution, although I can’t recall any of the details. Looking at the list there are three or four who would have been in the same area as him when the execution happened. He almost certainly would have known one of the soldiers who was executed, having enlisted at roughly the same time in the same regiment, travelling overseas with him (my Grandfather originally enlisted with the 107th Battalion, changing to the 16th just before going to France).
In December 2001 the minister of Veteran’s Affairs, Ron Duhamel, announced the inclusion of the 23 executed soldier’s names in Canada’s Books of Remembrance which rests in the Peace Tower** of the the Parliment Buildings. He said at the time "Those who go to war at the request of their nation do not know the fate that lies in store for them. This was a war of such overwhelming sound, fury and unrelenting horror that few combatants could remain unaffected. While we cannot relive those awful years of a nation at peril in total war, and although the culture of that time is subsequently too distant for us to comprehend fully, we can give these 23 soldiers a dignity that is their due, and provide closure to their families."
Upon reading the brief histories of the executed, it is clear that for the most part they exhibited a history of being AWOL and that their actions aren’t deserving of praise. But they were all volunteers, facing a horror that for us is unimaginable, and while the vast majority of those faced that horror, often resulting in their death, these 23 who couldn’t didn’t deserve to be executed because of it.
Strangely enough, about a week ago (prior to knowing about the impending pardon request) I submitted an entry to September’s First Friday, the birding fiction writing contest at Wild Bird on the Fly. Its subject? The execution of a soldier in the Great War.
(**A new page is turned each day on the book in the Peace Tower. If you’d like to search for a particular individual’s name in one of the Books of Remembrance, go to Veteran’s Affairs page on the books here. This is the page with my namesake’s name on it)
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I volunteered at the end of the Vietnam War while the draft was still on and spent 20 years. You have no idea how your going to react under some circumstances until you experience them. You shouldn’t have to pay with your life if your reactions didn’t meet someones expectations of a soldier. Though I don’t condone going AWOL, I don’t condone capital punishment as a punishment.
I would’ve opposed these exectuions as I oppose all executions. But as for how to deal with crimes committed by soldiers in the context of war…I just recently read of a particularly gruesome crime committed by American soldiers against civilians in Iraq. I wish we’d adopt the real solution: no more war.
It is easy to look at this (as any historical values)from our current point of view, but I agree. I’ve long thought that a civilized society has no use for the death penalty. What is so tragic about much of these incidents is that they did try alternate penalties, in some cases commuting death sentences two times. Sadly, in the Great War, gaol sentences were usually suspended after a short time so they could put men back in the line.
Some of the men executed shot with distincion in several battles, before the stress overtook them.
In an ideal world we wouldn’t have war, it is, in many ways, incredible that we don’t have more gruesome crimes committed by soldiers, given what we ask them to do day after day. When you think of the desensitizing that goes on… Canada had about 650,000 men in service during the Great War (66,000 of whom were killed or one in ten) of those two were convicted of murder one of who was clearly suffering from a brain injury from a fall.