Reenactment of the execution of a British soldier for desertion.


If anyone knows who's to credit for this scene, please let me know and will give credit. 

Today 104 years ago, on December 3, 1917, British Private Joseph Bateman was executed for desertion.
Unlike other British soldiers who were "Shot at Dawn" during the First World War, not much is known about Private Joseph Bateman, but this is what we know:
Joseph Bateman was born in Wordsley, England around 1889. In November 1913, he married a woman named Florence Rudge, and on their first anniversary in November 1914, Bateman enlisted into the British Army with the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment of the British 2nd Division.
Bateman arrived on the Western Front sometime in 1915 or 1916, and most likely fought on the frontlines on the Somme. However, less than 6 weeks into his service, he went missing for unknown reasons.
When he was found he was put into detention and then released on a warning, though the following day he went missing again, for which he was eventually court-martialed and sentenced to death by firing squad for desertion.
Also in 1915, Bateman's wife Florence gave birth to his daughter, whom they had probably conceived before he left for the front. It is unlikely that he ever saw his daughter.
In the early hours of December 3, 1917, Private Joseph Bateman was executed by a British firing squad in the village of Ytres near the Somme. He was buried in the Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery south of Ytres.
During the First World War, over 3,000 British Commonwealth soldiers were sentenced to death, of whom 346 were actually carried out.
On October 31, 2006, some 90 years after the First World War, the Armed Forces Act of 2006 was passed, granting an official pardon of 306 British Commonwealth soldiers executed during the First World War, most charged with desertion.
The remaining 40 executed soldiers of the 346, who weren't pardoned, were 37 soldiers executed for murder and 3 for mutiny.

Comments

  1. Effector DhanushanthJanuary 29, 2024 at 12:08 AM

    But why was Bateman's death said to be horrible? Or am I missing something?

    ReplyDelete

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