Times Online March 27, 2006
Pardon possible for WW1 soldier shot as "coward"
By Sam Knight and agencies
Private Harry Farr in 1916 (PA)
The Ministry of Defence says it will look again at granting a reprieve to a soldier shot during the First World War for cowardice, the High Court heard today.
Lawyers for John Reid, the Minister of Defence, said he would "reconsider" his decision to refuse Private Harry Farr, who was executed in 1916, a posthumous pardon. Mr Reid turned down a request from Private Farr's family to clear the soldier's record in February.
The surprising statement came at the start of a hearing at the High Court to determine whether Private Farr, who served for nearly two years in the trenches, had been suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, known as shell-shock, when he was found guilty of cowardice by a court martial.
Mr Reid's defence team said the Minister would also give "serious consideration" to a request for a personal meeting with Farr's family.
Asked what she would say to Mr Reid at such a meeting, Gertrude Harris, Private Farr's 92-year-old daughter from Harrow, north London, who has fought for 13 years to clear his name, said: "I would just like to say: ‘Please give him the pardon, just to prove he was not a coward.'
"He was a very brave soldier who died for his country."
Private Harry Farr of the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment was shot at dawn on the Western Front on October 18, 1916, after being found guilty of "misbehaving before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice".
But at a hearing at the High Court last October, Edward Fitzgerald, QC, appearing for Mrs Harris and her daughter, Janet Booth, 63, of Farnham, Surrey, argued that Private Farr had been of very good character and had served continuously in France from 1914, fighting at Neuve-Chappelle and the Battle of the Somme.
He was treated on several occasions for shell shock and was described by nurses as shaking so badly he was unable to hold a pen. A month before he died, Private Farr told his comrades he was "sick with nerves" before breaking down and refusing to go back to the front. Evidence of his medical condition was not included in his court martial.
At his execution, carried out a fortnight after his court martial for cowardice on October 2, 1916, Private Farr refused a blindfold. He was buried in an unmarked grave.
Today Mr Fitzgerald said that there was "overwhelming" evidence to grant Private Farr a pardon, arguing that any mitigating medical evidence should be sufficient to question the death sentence, one of 17 passed against alleged cowards in the British Army during the First World War [[compared to 25 Canadians who were shot for cowardice in WWI, and there were fewer of them fighting]]. A further 289 soldiers were shot for desertion and disobeying orders.
*Britain’s oldest known First World War survivor has been admitted to hospital with a chest infection. Henry Allingham, 109, was taken to Eastbourne District General Hospital yesterday but is expected to recover within days. A ceremony to give him the freedom of Eastbourne, scheduled for tomorrow, has been re-arranged.
*And the last British World War I veteran to pass away will receive a state funeral, the Government has announced.
thetimesonline.co.uk
Pardon possible for WW1 soldier shot as "coward"
By Sam Knight and agencies
Private Harry Farr in 1916 (PA)
The Ministry of Defence says it will look again at granting a reprieve to a soldier shot during the First World War for cowardice, the High Court heard today.
Lawyers for John Reid, the Minister of Defence, said he would "reconsider" his decision to refuse Private Harry Farr, who was executed in 1916, a posthumous pardon. Mr Reid turned down a request from Private Farr's family to clear the soldier's record in February.
The surprising statement came at the start of a hearing at the High Court to determine whether Private Farr, who served for nearly two years in the trenches, had been suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, known as shell-shock, when he was found guilty of cowardice by a court martial.
Mr Reid's defence team said the Minister would also give "serious consideration" to a request for a personal meeting with Farr's family.
Asked what she would say to Mr Reid at such a meeting, Gertrude Harris, Private Farr's 92-year-old daughter from Harrow, north London, who has fought for 13 years to clear his name, said: "I would just like to say: ‘Please give him the pardon, just to prove he was not a coward.'
"He was a very brave soldier who died for his country."
Private Harry Farr of the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment was shot at dawn on the Western Front on October 18, 1916, after being found guilty of "misbehaving before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice".
But at a hearing at the High Court last October, Edward Fitzgerald, QC, appearing for Mrs Harris and her daughter, Janet Booth, 63, of Farnham, Surrey, argued that Private Farr had been of very good character and had served continuously in France from 1914, fighting at Neuve-Chappelle and the Battle of the Somme.
He was treated on several occasions for shell shock and was described by nurses as shaking so badly he was unable to hold a pen. A month before he died, Private Farr told his comrades he was "sick with nerves" before breaking down and refusing to go back to the front. Evidence of his medical condition was not included in his court martial.
At his execution, carried out a fortnight after his court martial for cowardice on October 2, 1916, Private Farr refused a blindfold. He was buried in an unmarked grave.
Today Mr Fitzgerald said that there was "overwhelming" evidence to grant Private Farr a pardon, arguing that any mitigating medical evidence should be sufficient to question the death sentence, one of 17 passed against alleged cowards in the British Army during the First World War [[compared to 25 Canadians who were shot for cowardice in WWI, and there were fewer of them fighting]]. A further 289 soldiers were shot for desertion and disobeying orders.
*Britain’s oldest known First World War survivor has been admitted to hospital with a chest infection. Henry Allingham, 109, was taken to Eastbourne District General Hospital yesterday but is expected to recover within days. A ceremony to give him the freedom of Eastbourne, scheduled for tomorrow, has been re-arranged.
*And the last British World War I veteran to pass away will receive a state funeral, the Government has announced.
thetimesonline.co.uk