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Concept
Shot at Dawn Memorial
Summary
The Shot at Dawn Memorial is a monument at the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas, in Staffordshire, UK. It commemorates the 306 British Army and Commonwealth soldiers executed after courts-martial for desertion and other capital offences during World War I.
The memorial is to servicemen executed by firing squad during the First World War.
It has been argued that soldiers accused of cowardice were often not given fair trials; they were often not properly defended, and some were minors. Other sources contend that military law, being based on Roman rather than Common law, appears unfamiliar to civilian eyes but is no less fair. It was the court's role to establish facts, for example, not for prosecutors and defenders to argue their cases; and Holmes states "it was the first duty of the court to ensure the prisoner had every advantage to what he was legally entitled". Defendants often chose to speak in their own defence. The usual cause for their offences has been re-attributed in modern times to post-traumatic stress syndrome and combat stress reaction.
Another perspective is that the decisions to execute were taken in the heat of war when the commander's job was to keep the army together and fighting.
Of the 200,000 or so men court-martialed during the First World War, 20,000 were found guilty of offences carrying the death penalty. Of those, 3080 actually received it, and of those sentences, 346 were carried out.
The others were given lesser sentences, or had death sentences commuted to a lesser punishment, e.g. hard labour, field punishment or a suspended sentence. 91 of the men executed were under a suspended sentence: 41 of those executed were previously subject to commuted death sentences, and one had a death sentence commuted twice before. Of the 346 men who were executed, 309 were pardoned: the remaining 37 were executed for murder, and would have been executed under civilian law.
The families of these victims often carried the stigma of the label of "coward".
Official source
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