WW1 soldiers executed for cowardice and desertion to be pardoned

LONDON - The British government says it will pardon 300 World War One soldiers executed for cowardice, desertion and other offences.

Relatives of the dead British soldiers have long argued the officers who ordered their executions failed to take into account the horrific circumstances of the 1914-1918 war that put soldiers under immense stress and may have affected them psychologically.

One soldier set to be pardoned, Private Harry Farr, was suffering from severe shellshock when he refused to return to the front line, his family has long maintained.

He was shot at dawn on October 2, 1916, aged 25.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said he had decided to grant a group pardon to more than 300 soldiers because the evidence did not exist to assess each case individually.

"I believe it is better to acknowledge that injustices were clearly done in some cases, even if we cannot say which - and to acknowledge that all these men were victims of war," Browne said in a statement.

"They have had to endure a stigma for decades," he added.

Browne said he would seek parliamentary approval for the pardons as soon as possible.

Farr's granddaughter Janet Booth told the BBC the family were "over the moon" at the decision.

Farr, a soldier with the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, had already witnessed some of the horrors of the war when he refused to return to battle and was ordered shot for cowardice.

The government said in March it would reconsider its initial refusal to pardon Farr after his family appealed. They contended his court martial was unfair because officers did not take shellshock into consideration.

Of the approximately 300 British soldiers shot dead by their own side during World War One, 17 were executed for cowardice. Others were killed for deserting the army or disobeying orders.

- REUTERS