Families to get soldiers' awards

War medals and awards will be presented to the families of five soldiers who were executed for mutiny and desertion during World War 1 but pardoned by Parliament in 2000.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that research had shown the five soldiers would have been eligible for medals, certificates and medallions.

She said the Government planned to present the awards to next of kin at ceremonies in Wellington and Canberra this year.

The soldiers and their awards were:

* Private Jack Braithwaite, born Dunedin, 1882: British War Medal, Victory Medal, New Zealand Certificate of Honour.

* Private Frank Hughes, born Croydon, Southland, 1888: British War Medal, Victory Medal, New Zealand Certificate of Honour.

* Private John King, born Victoria, Australia, 1885: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, New Zealand Certificate of Honour, Anzac Commemorative Medallion.

* Private Victor Manson Spencer, born Otautau, Southland, 1894: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, New Zealand Certificate of Honour, Anzac Commemorative Medallion.

* Private John Joseph Sweeney, born Sprent, Tasmania, 1879: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, New Zealand Certificate of Honour, Anzac Commemorative Medallion.

Four of the soldiers were executed and buried in France and one in Belgium.

The Pardon for Soldiers of the Great War Act 2000 pardoned the five men from the New Zealand Division, First New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who were executed for either mutiny or desertion.

The act started as a bill in the name of Labour MP Mark Peck but was taken over by the Government.

In its original draft, the bill said pardons should be granted on the grounds that the men were suffering shellshock.

The select committee that considered the bill decided there was not enough evidence of shellshock to grant pardons on that basis.

It decided pardons should be granted because execution was not a fate the men deserved, but resulted from the harsh military discipline at the time.

- NZPA