Killed in the name of Discipline....Shot At Dawn.

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Welcome back to the history veteran.

[00:00:04]So at the moment I'm in Poperinghe which is about 5 miles short of Ypres which is in that direction and behind me is the town hall.

[00:00:20]Now Poperinghe during the First World War was an administration center so there would have been troops here resting, recuperating, there would have been ambulance units here first aid posts or regimental aid posts and a couple of interesting sites, Talbot House set up by the Reverend Tubby Talbot, I can't remember his real name which is up there, it's a white building and he turned that house into a a place a place for solace and solitude and prayer and in the loft is a small chapel.

[00:00:58]Now many places try and replicate that and one of the places Ramsgate Royal British Legion, upstairs in their room upstairs they've got a they used to have a chapel up there when it was first opened or you know an altar anyway and I uh there's a stained glass window at the bottom. In fact there's three stained glass windows.

[00:01:16]Unfortunately whoever put it in had the um stained glass round the wrong side cuz you're meant to read them from inside the church not from outside.

[00:01:26]There's a great wall behind the back of it so you wouldn't read it anyway.

[00:01:29]And behind me is the town hall as I as I've said. Now I did a video some time ago about shot at dawn and I'm just going to cover that again briefly.

[00:01:40]Now it was in this town hall that some of the courts martial were carried out for those that were going to be tried for um desertion or cowardice in the face of the enemy throwing away your arms striking a superior officer or any crime that could give you the death sentence, and other crimes as well.

[00:02:04]And some of these trials lasted less than 20 minutes.

[00:02:11]Now, I know that under military law, you know, things are different, but 20 minutes?

[00:02:18]And I know we shouldn't measure our standards against the standards of those during the First World War, you know, in the early 1920s.

[00:02:28]But 20 minutes?

[00:02:32]Just beggars belief, doesn't it?

[00:02:34]And I'll go and tell you a little bit more about um someone that found that astonishing when we get outside of Poperinghe.

[00:02:46]So, at the rear of the um town hall, are some cells. Now, I might not be able to do much talking inside there, cuz I'm sure there's quite a few people in there, but I'll just uh pan you around so you can have a look.

[00:03:09]Sorry.

[00:03:40]So, the first cell I showed you was where the condemned man would be, as well as the second cell as well. And that's uh a closed off cell, and the the picture you saw at the back is like a a PowerPoint presentation of the uh condemned walking up and down or pacing up and down in his cell ready for execution. Now, I'm actually in the court of the town hall.

[00:04:03]They've now put offices in here. When I first started coming out here 30 odd years ago, none of this was here. And actually the shooting there was here against this wall, a post, shooting post.

[00:04:19]And alongside it was the poem, The Coward.

[00:04:25]Now, when they shot at dawn were pardoned in 2006 or 2009, I know it was 309 in total that were pardoned, they took that poem down and they wrote another one.

[00:04:38]Unfortunately, it's in uh Flemish or Walloon, I think, and I don't speak either. I just about speak English.

[00:04:46]But they've put this memorial in here.

[00:04:49]It sort of demonstrates, >> [snorts] >> you know, a pole post for the condemned man to be tied against and a sandbag wall for the, you know, as the the backdrop or the the butt, basically.

[00:05:04]So, what would happen is that the condemned man would spend the night in the cell and if they were, yeah, they're not too sure. There is no evidence of actually how many men were executed in this courtyard, but they say probably about seven.

[00:05:23]But the condemned man would spend his night in that courtyard looking out here and the post would have been out here.

[00:05:29]And at dawn, he might be given a shot of rum to uh calm his nerves or a shot of morphine or something just to calm his nerves a bit and he'd be marched out uh between two escorts with a priest and an officer. And they would come out and they'd stand him against the post, whichever wherever it was in the square.

[00:05:53]And the firing squad would either already be in position or would then be marched in.

[00:06:01]They would pick weapons up off the ground.

[00:06:04]And these have been pre-loaded. And I think one or at least two of the um rifles would have live ammunition. The remainder would have blanks, depending on what unit carried it out. Some would only put one blank in or somebody would only put one live round or two live rounds in, the rest blank.

[00:06:24]It depended on the unit entirely. That was down to unit. But generally the condemned soldier, it was his own unit that carried it out. And it has been known for the men in the firing squad, and I think one of the Scottish regiments did it. I I can't remember. It might be in the Black Watch. They fired over the head of the soldiers soldier.

[00:06:47]Because they knew him quite well from their battalion.

[00:06:51]But it was a demonstration uh to the remainder of the troops that if you commit an offense that qualifies the death penalty, you'd be executed. 34,000 men were sentenced to death. Sorry, that's wrong.

[00:07:07]Over 3 and 1/2 thousand men were sentenced to death, but obviously only the 309 were carried out. There were other death penalties carried out for murder and rape and so on. But we don't count those as they were crimes and not what we would call now crimes equated to or penalties equated to battle shock or you know, PTSD.

[00:07:33]And there it is, yeah, Poperinghe. I So, I've done a video before on the shot at dawn.

[00:07:38]And I I to me there was just no excuse. I just, yeah, I found that appalling. And especially when they, you know, the trial only lasted 20 minutes.

[00:07:47]But I'm going to go out to, uh, Poperinghe New Military Cemetery.

[00:07:52]And which is about, I don't know, half mile away, quarter mile away.

[00:07:57]And we'll talk about how this affected one person in particular.

[00:08:06]If the soldier didn't die, by the way, the officer had to walk up and give him the coup de grace, which was a bullet to the head. Now, a lot of these young officers, 18, 19, 20 years old, officers then didn't buy a rank, but their position in society for many gave them that.

[00:08:34]Not not not the confidence to do that, but knowing that that that was their duty.

[00:08:40]But it must have sickened many.

[00:08:43]I mean, it it like I say, you know, it's hard to measure our standards to theirs, but anyway, so if you do come out here, this is a must, say, you know, to come in.

[00:08:53]The The camera doesn't show it really well. It's a beautiful little town, as well. Try not to come back 12:00 though, cuz the schools kick out. Anyway, I'll be back soon.

[00:09:05]So, welcome back.

[00:09:07]Right. So, carrying on from, uh, Poperinghe and the town hall, I've come up to, uh, Poperinghe New Military Cemetery.

[00:09:18]And it's about, I don't know, it it is only about quarter of a mile outside the town. It's a bit windy to get here, but and in this cemetery, there are, if memory serves, seven men who were shot at dawn.

[00:09:34]And one of those is Sergeant John Thomas Wall of the Worcestershire Regiment. I think he was second battalion.

[00:09:47]And he was executed in 1917.

[00:09:52]Now you may have heard of I'm sure you've heard of Michael Morpurgo.

[00:10:00]Uh an author, fantastic author actually.

[00:10:03]He wrote Private Peaceful.

[00:10:06]And when he came out here, uh I think he was out here for a visit or a symposium, I don't know, a conference.

[00:10:14]And he was introduced to obviously, I think you probably knew a little bit about the Commonwealth War Graves.

[00:10:20]But was introduced to the you know these men that were shot at dawn.

[00:10:24]And he based, loosely based Private Peaceful on Sergeant Thomas Wall.

[00:10:32]Uh Private Peaceful's first name I believe is Thomas, isn't it? Thomas Peaceful. Tommo to his mates.

[00:10:39]And if you want to know about it, you can watch that on the TV. It's a great thing. And uh uh and you know, obviously based on the book as well.

[00:10:47]But there are seven burials here as I've said.

[00:10:49]And I did promise earlier I would mention about the headstones before I just carry on a bit.

[00:10:55]So you'll notice that are starting to fade a little bit like this one here. And the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are setting about all those headstones that require repair. And I think they're using an Italian stone. I think it's called Masoni, but someone might correct me.

[00:11:15]But it is a beautiful stone as well.

[00:11:17]Such the same as Portland rock.

[00:11:21]I can't tell you how many burials here, how many burials. I bet it's 500 maybe.

[00:11:26]I could be wrong about that.

[00:11:28]But also buried here was the first of three officers that were executed, shot at dawn.

[00:11:39]And here is that headstone I said to you that was that showed uh an atheist soldier. You see it without the cross.

[00:11:51]And where is he? There's one of the new headstones there.

[00:11:55]And Murray Welsh Regiment.

[00:11:58]Now, I know he's along here somewhere.

[00:12:02]I know you're real. There you are. So, the first of three soldiers executed during the Second World Sorry, during the First World War.

[00:12:11]And that is Second Lieutenant Eric Skeffington Poole.

[00:12:15]West Yorkshire Regiment.

[00:12:18]And again, the uh inscription at the bottom there, grant him eternal rest, oh Lord Jesus mercy, which was paid for it by his family. And the family argued that uh when he came home on leave, he was um he wasn't himself.

[00:12:36]And all the stories that we hear about the you know, the Western Front and the the guns and the you know, the the muds and the rest of it. And it must have affected many people.

[00:12:49]One of my great uncles, Henry, he was a Grenadier Guardsman and he was in he was wounded in Ypres.

[00:12:58]And I've got an article somewhere on a newspaper. He was wounded, taken home, and then sent back back to Ypres. And they were shelled for 6 weeks constantly.

[00:13:12]And when I knew him later on in years, he was stone deaf. Came from Southampton. In fact, the last time I saw him was 1976 when Southampton beat Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup Final. That was the last time I saw him. Yeah, deaf as a post.

[00:13:29]Now, one thing I did want to say about all nearly all Commonwealth War Graves sites is a cemetery register.

[00:13:40]And in this register is a book containing the war dead and foreign nationals. So, all all the men that are buried here are listed alphabetically.

[00:13:55]And also, which I will do in a second, let me just get that back in there.

[00:14:00]Let's turn around so you've got something to look at while I'm fumbling around with that.

[00:14:04]>> [snorts] >> is a visitors book.

[00:14:10]Now, when you visit these sites, I implore you I urge you or ask you politely to make a comment in there. So, it must now be I I keep saying about years ago, but I mean, it must now be 25 years ago.

[00:14:31]The government did a study on actually how many people were visiting these Commonwealth War Graves sites.

[00:14:38]cemeteries. So, they put in visitors book just to actually see how many people were coming.

[00:14:43]And yeah, so if you ever go, put your name down. So, at least I know people are visiting.

[00:14:50]I should imagine in 100 years there will still be people coming to these sites.

[00:14:59]There we go. Poperinghe New Military Cemetery.

[00:15:03]All right.

[00:15:04]Onwards.