squad (Macdonald, 1991):
I wasn’t present at the execution. I didn’t want to be. Neither was it a nice job for the ten men. I consulted with my Company Sergeant Major and he actually picked the ten and I didn’t go into details of how it was done, whether the man was put in a chair or blindfolded, or anything, a mark over heart – I didn’t go into details at all. I didn’t even ask the subaltern afterwards what happened. It was a horrible thing to have to do, but it had to be done. It had no effect on the men’s morale.
This recollection reveals a number of interesting points as there is a sense of ‘out of sight means out of mind’: Slack apparently played no part in this process, as he left the company sergeant major to select the men and did not seek to check the details of the execution or provide any support to the subaltern either before, during or after the event. It raises questions about the basis on which the company sergeant major made his selection and whether or not this was fair – were names perhaps placed in a hat and those whose names were pulled out were the unlucky ones? Or did the decision involve favouritism or the settling of scores? Slack was a brave man, as evidenced by his Military Cross, but does his handling of this situation reveal indifference, moral cowardice or someone who had at heart perhaps questioned the validity of military executions? And can it really be possible, given the experiences recounted in letter No.4, that the men concerned were left unaffected by their experience?
The most concerning aspect of what Captain Slack had to say about the condemned man was that ‘he was a halfwit’. Slack went on to acknowledge that, at this stage of the war, the latest drafts of soldiers represented ‘poor material’, but even so, he does not argue against the death sentence, although he did write to the soldier’s mother to inform her that her son had been killed in action.
† † †
Sometimes those charged with forming a firing squad resorted to subterfuge, as reported in Thurtle’s letter No.1. On 26 September 1914, Private George Ward of the 1st Royal Berkshire Regiment was executed having been found guilty of cowardice. At the time, the men were out of the front line but were due to go back that night. The author of the letter takes up the story:
To get the firing party … they called for twelve men to carry tools. Now the men who carried tools at that time had the first chance of using them, so you see there were plenty of volunteers, but once on parade they quickly realised that their job was to shoot poor ‘A’.
Captain M.L. Walkinton of the Machine Gun Corps wrote in his diary of his shock at being ordered by his colonel to form a firing squad from his company for the execution of Private Patrick Murphy, 47th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, on 12 September 1918. Murphy had been convicted of desertion on three separate occasions. This was a firing squad of six long-service men, with one of them having a rifle loaded with a blank round – the significance of which will be discussed in the next chapter. Walkinton observes, ‘although they all hated the job they loyally obeyed their orders.’
† † †
On 23 March 1916, Private F. Charles Bladen, of the 10th Yorks and Lancaster Regiment, was executed for the offence of desertion by a firing squad drawn from his own battalion. The execution detail was made up of the regimental sergeant major, the provost sergeant, an escort of one NCO, and two men, together with a firing squad that included the condemned man’s platoon commander, Lieutenant A.W. Lamond, one sergeant and sixteen men, four of whom would have been the burial party. In this particular case very definite orders had been given that the men were not to be told in advance what they were about to be ordered to carry out, and the group was taken by bus to its billets close to the site of the execution.
Private Bladen was shot by a firing squad
I wasn’t present at the execution. I didn’t want to be. Neither was it a nice job for the ten men. I consulted with my Company Sergeant Major and he actually picked the ten and I didn’t go into details of how it was done, whether the man was put in a chair or blindfolded, or anything, a mark over heart – I didn’t go into details at all. I didn’t even ask the subaltern afterwards what happened. It was a horrible thing to have to do, but it had to be done. It had no effect on the men’s morale.
This recollection reveals a number of interesting points as there is a sense of ‘out of sight means out of mind’: Slack apparently played no part in this process, as he left the company sergeant major to select the men and did not seek to check the details of the execution or provide any support to the subaltern either before, during or after the event. It raises questions about the basis on which the company sergeant major made his selection and whether or not this was fair – were names perhaps placed in a hat and those whose names were pulled out were the unlucky ones? Or did the decision involve favouritism or the settling of scores? Slack was a brave man, as evidenced by his Military Cross, but does his handling of this situation reveal indifference, moral cowardice or someone who had at heart perhaps questioned the validity of military executions? And can it really be possible, given the experiences recounted in letter No.4, that the men concerned were left unaffected by their experience?
The most concerning aspect of what Captain Slack had to say about the condemned man was that ‘he was a halfwit’. Slack went on to acknowledge that, at this stage of the war, the latest drafts of soldiers represented ‘poor material’, but even so, he does not argue against the death sentence, although he did write to the soldier’s mother to inform her that her son had been killed in action.
† † †
Sometimes those charged with forming a firing squad resorted to subterfuge, as reported in Thurtle’s letter No.1. On 26 September 1914, Private George Ward of the 1st Royal Berkshire Regiment was executed having been found guilty of cowardice. At the time, the men were out of the front line but were due to go back that night. The author of the letter takes up the story:
To get the firing party … they called for twelve men to carry tools. Now the men who carried tools at that time had the first chance of using them, so you see there were plenty of volunteers, but once on parade they quickly realised that their job was to shoot poor ‘A’.
Captain M.L. Walkinton of the Machine Gun Corps wrote in his diary of his shock at being ordered by his colonel to form a firing squad from his company for the execution of Private Patrick Murphy, 47th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, on 12 September 1918. Murphy had been convicted of desertion on three separate occasions. This was a firing squad of six long-service men, with one of them having a rifle loaded with a blank round – the significance of which will be discussed in the next chapter. Walkinton observes, ‘although they all hated the job they loyally obeyed their orders.’
† † †
On 23 March 1916, Private F. Charles Bladen, of the 10th Yorks and Lancaster Regiment, was executed for the offence of desertion by a firing squad drawn from his own battalion. The execution detail was made up of the regimental sergeant major, the provost sergeant, an escort of one NCO, and two men, together with a firing squad that included the condemned man’s platoon commander, Lieutenant A.W. Lamond, one sergeant and sixteen men, four of whom would have been the burial party. In this particular case very definite orders had been given that the men were not to be told in advance what they were about to be ordered to carry out, and the group was taken by bus to its billets close to the site of the execution.
Private Bladen was shot by a firing squad
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