Hundreds of British Soldiers Executed During WW1 Receive Pardons
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter London, United Kingdom (AHN) - The British Defense Ministry says 306 soldiers who were executed for cowardice during World War I will be pardoned. Defense Secretary Des Browne says the government will ask parliament for its approval to issue the pardons. The decision comes after a long-fought campaign by the family of Pvt. Harry Farr, 25, who was killed by firing squad in 1916 for refusing to go back to the frontlines. Family lawyers says Farr's relatives have been trying for decades to clear his name. Farr's granddaughter, Janet Booth, tells teh AP, "We are over the moon." Experts believe many of the soldiers who were executed suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after living through trench warfare. The British government has expressed regret for the executions. However, it refused to give the soldiers an official pardon, saying it is impossible to determine their guilt or innocence. Farr's daughter, Gertrude Harris, told the High Court last year that the soldier had been diagnosed with shell shock a year before his execution. The 93-year-old says, "I am so relieved that this ordeal is now over and I can be content knowing that my father's memory is intact." She adds, "I hope that others now who had brave relatives who were shot by their own side will now get the pardons they equally deserve." More than 703,000 British soldiers wer |
