And thats a wrap! Despite mist & fog for most of the day, 14 new @cwgc.bsky.social #Cemeteries visited & catalogued, from #Esquelbecq
to #Faureuil & several inbetween, 11 new #ShotAtDawn headstones visited (we added a couple) & still had time for a banging #burger at #AuBureau in #Arras!

Here we go! Cataloging day!
17 hours, 12 new @cwgc.bsky.social #cemeteries, ten new #ShotAtDawn burials, across the #WW1 #Battlefields of #France, and maybe even a #Burger somewhere along the line! #LetsRoll!

4. He is buried at Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, France. Private Bladen was pardon by H.M Government, and he is remembered on the National Arboretum, Lichfield. #WW1 #shotatdawn

3. When arrested in London on the following January 29th 1916, Bladen said that he had merely overstayed his home leave. He then made 3 attempts at escape which failed; his trial followed, and he was executed on March 23rd 1916 aged 26. #WW1 #shotatdawn

2. Charles joined the York and Lancaster Regiment 10th Battalion. Rank: Private. Service No. 14537. On 20 Dec 1915, he deserted from his battalion which was fighting at Armentières. #WW1 #shotatdawn

1. Series of men who were executed for desertion in WWI:
Charles Bladen was born in 1888, Barnsley, Yorkshire. He was the son of John Bladen and Elizabeth Leech. In 1915 Charles married Alice M Orchard. #WW1 #shotatdawn

On this Remembrance Day I shall be thinking of the - mostly working class* - men riddled with shell shock, caught after running away in terror, tied to a stake and #ShotAtDawn
*the officer class tended to be shipped off to places like Craiglockhart to recuperate and write poems

4. Private Alfred Leonard Jeffries is remembered at the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire. #WW1 #shotatdawn

3. Prior to the attack on Delville Wood in August 1916, he went missing, unable to stand the strain.
He was executed on 18th November 1916 for attempted desertion at Deville Wood near Penin, France aged 29. Buried at Arras Road Cemetery, France. #WW1 #shotatdawn

2. He was wounded in the month following his arrival in France in May 1915 and returned to active service in due course. But in November he was evacuated to hospital following a nervous breakdown, returning a second time to his battalion early in 1916. #WW1 #shotatdawn

1. Continuing the series of Men who were Shot at Dawn WW1:
Alfred Leonard Jeffries was born in 1886, Bristol. He was the son of Leonard George Jeffries and Georgina White.
Alfred joined the 6th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. Rank Private. Service No. 9970. #WW1 #shotatdawn

4. It shows that Alfred was married to a Rose according to the Register of Effects entry.
#WW1 #shotatdawn

3. Atkinson was arrested 3 weeks later. At trial, evidence was given that he was a good soldier, hence his sentence had carried a recommendation to mercy.
Lance Corporal Alfred Atkins is buried at the Chapelle-d’Armentieres, Old Cemetery France.
#WW1 #shotatdawn

2. 8014 Lance Corporal Alfred Atkinson, 1st Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own), executed for desertion 2nd March 1915, aged 24. He won a sum of money gambling, and after a drinking-bout deserted from his battalion when it was under orders to proceed to the front. #WW1 #shotatdawn

1. Series of men who were executed for desertion in WWI:
Alfred Atkinson was born in 1889, Leeds, Yorkshire. He was the son of Edward Atkinson and Mary Lister Barstow. #WW1 #shotatdawn

6. Years later he was pardoned.
Private William Hunter is buried at Maroc British Cemetery. #WW1 #shotatdawn

5. t was said because of his young age as he was only 17 in the September that the sentence be commuted to 5 years Penal Servitude. However, on the 21st February 1916 aged 18 Private William Hunter was shot as a deserter. #WW1 #shotatdawn

4. 3rd charge while in prison at Mazingarbe on 5th January 1916 he escaped from the guard room awaiting Field Court Martial.
After witnesses had given evidence he was found guilty. #WW1 #shotatdawn

3. 1st charge was for desertion in the field on 23rd September 1915 until he was apprehended in Burbure, 30th November 1915 avoiding active operations against the enemy.
2nd charge while in prison at Lillers he escaped from the detention room on 1st December 1915. #WW1 #shotatdawn

2. In 1911 William aged 15 was an inmate, school, Durham, Sunderland. In 1914 William joined The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 1st Battalion. Rank Private, Service No. 10710. In 1915 he went to France. #WW1 #shotatdawn

1. Series of men who were executed for desertion in WWI:
William Hunter was born in 1897, Percy Main, Northumberland. He was the son of James Gibson Hunter and Margaret Dixon. #WW1 #shotatdawn

Shot at Dawn Memorial
The National Memorial Arboretum

#designed by #Fira #landscapearchitects
🌳
#alrewas #staffordshire #shotatdawn
#landscape #landscapearchitecture #memorial #arboretum #nationalmemorialarboretum #armedforcesmemorial #armedforces #chooselandscape #trees #nature
#nikonz8

2. Private George Ainley joined King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.1/4th Battalion. Service No. 202893. He was executed for desertion on 30th July 1918 age 20. He is buried at Hagle Dump Cemetery, Belgium. #WW1 #shotatdawn #history

1. This is a series of men who were executed for desertion in WWI. I am starting off with the men from Yorkshire.
George Ainley was born in 1898, Sheffield, Yorkshire. He was the son of George Ainley and Alice Mary Liversidge. #WW1 #shotatdawn #history

A copy of a letter. This is the back 'carbon paper' copy from a hand typed letter dated 5th November 1917. It is from the Keighley Borough Council, Town Clerk to Mrs' M. Cook asking is she has any information about the previous Army service of Private Henry MacDonald, who had been shot at dawn in 1916 for desertion. Here is the letter in full: Page 882 of the Town Clerk's book.  Encl. 5th Nov., 7. Dear Madam, I am trying to obtain a pension for Mrs. Lily Macdonald, the widow of your late brother, Private Henry Macdonald. I understand that he was shot for desertion in France last November; Mrs. Macdonald tells me that a few months previously he had been in hospital suffering from shell shock, which might possibly account for his desertion. I have written to the officer in Charge of Records in order to ascertain whether his service in the present War was satisfactory prior to the shell shock. I understand that he was a regular soldier for either nine or twelve years before his marriage, but his widow holds no record of this service. I shall be grateful if you will give me any information you have concerning him during that time. Have you any papers in connection with his service? Do you know in what regiment and battalion he served? Have you any idea of his regimental number, the date of his enlistment and of his discharge and do you know where he was stationed? I shall be grateful for any information you can give me in order to trace your brother during this time. I am sure that if you can assist me to obtain a pension for the widow you will be willing to do so. Mrs. M. Cook. 74, Frodsham Street, Yours truly, Marfleet, Hull.

I flipping love archives.
In #Keighley Library archive is a series of bound letters in large books. These are letters of the Keighley Town Clerk in the #WW1 period and I've found one from him trying to get information for a pension for Private Henry MacDonald's widow. Henry was #ShotAtDawn in 1916.