Shot at dawn
The BBC story about over 300 people who were callously executed during the World War I and pardoned after 90 years raises a few very pertinent questions. Was it really Private Thomas Highgate, the 17-year-old who broke down and fled after he witnessed...
The BBC story about over 300 people who were callously executed during the World War I and pardoned after 90 years raises a few very pertinent questions.
Was it really Private Thomas Highgate, the 17-year-old who broke down and fled after he witnessed the slaughter of all his comrades that should be pardoned, or the callous society that shot him at dawn?
Young Thomas was undefended at his court martial because none of his comrades survived.
The village of Shoreham, Kent, where this young man hailed from, voted to exclude him from a war memorial. They should be asking for a pardon along with Her Majesty, her regiments and her government, and not a shell-shocked teenager who clearly needed psychiatric care after his ordeal.
Along with them, the British Psychiatric Institution should also hang its head in shame for failing to highlight these atrocities, for fear of ruffling a few establishment feathers. They could have supported the brave families of these unfortunate people in their tenacious and enduring campaign for the restitution of their honour.
Is it perhaps true that the legendary "courage" of the British Tommy is derived from being in more danger from those on his own side, than from anything he may encounter before him?