?Shot at dawn

The following are first hand quotes and diary extracts of offensive actions in the First World War. They are taken from Paul Allens book "Neath a foreign sky."

Extract: Shot at dawn

?Shot at Dawn? - The life and death of Private James Crampton

That had almost the end of the trial, except for a short statement, which had been made in writing by Private Crampton that at this point had been read out to the panel of officers;

?There is no one here who knows me. I was in the Army before the war. I re-enlisted in August 1914. I always show a good character and there is nothing against me during my war service?...the trial was at an end; there would be no pleas for clemency or leave to appeal.

Following the Courts Martial James Crampton had been sent back to his regiment to await his fate, unknowing that it had already been decided by the court, their verdict, Guilty with no recommendations for mercy, his fate death. The wheels of military justice had then been set in motion to carry the sentence out. Before he had been executed however, the findings of the court had to go through the bureaucratic channels of military red tape to be verified by an army chain of command that would end at the desk of the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force himself, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.

?In this courtyard a number of British soldiers were executed by the firing squad between 1916 and 1919. Most of them were sentenced to death because of desertion as a result of shellshock...their fate symbolises the inhumanities of war?...

Close by another inscription reads -
?The Coward? I could not look on death,
Which being known,
Men led me to him,
Blindfold and alone?...
Rudyard Kipling