 |
| The Shot at Dawn memorial at The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire |
The soldier believed to be the inspiration behind the television drama The Monocled Mutineer is to be commemorated nearly 100 years after he was shot at dawn for mutiny.
Jesse Robert Short was executed for his role in the mutiny against military police at Étaples army base camp in France in September 1917.
He was pardoned in 2006 and will now have his name added to the Shot at Dawn memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, which was set up to honour British army and Commonwealth soldiers executed for desertion and other capital offences during the First World War.
Corporal Short, a Northumberland Fusilier, who is remembered in the 2012 song Mutiny by the folk rock band the Levellers, is to be included after a campaign by relatives of other pardoned soldiers.
The memorial features stakes marking 306 soldiers, arranged around a white statue of a blindfolded private, said to be modelled on Private Herbert Burden, a 17-year-old Northumberland Fusilier who falsified his age to enlist and was shot for deserting his post.
Two other men will have their names added: Gunner William Lewis of the Royal Field Artillery, from Leith, Edinburgh, who was shot for mutiny in 1916, and Private Cecil John “Jack” Braithwaite, of New Zealand Expeditionary Force 2nd Battalion Otago Regiment, also executed at Étaples in 1917.
His nephew, David Braithwaite, said his inclusion would right an injustice. Private Braithwaite’s father, he said, died four months after his execution — “we are all certain, of a broken heart.”
Source: The Times, Catherine Philp, April 26 2016
Mutineer shot at dawn to be commemorated nearly 100 years after his execution
 |
| British soldiers carrying out an execution |
Although the hit-series centred on Percy Toplis, researchers believe the mutineer depicted was in fact based on Jesse Robert Short, who was executed for his part in the mutiny at Etaples, in France, in September 1917.
A corporal in the 24th Battalion (Tyneside Irish) Northumberland Fusiliers, Short apparently incited his men to throw an officer into the river.
It has been discovered that Cpl Short’s name and that of two other soldiers involved in separate mutinies, do not feature on the “Shot at Dawn” memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
The memorial was created in 2000 by artist Andy DeComyn as his gift to the relatives of the 306 men that had been pardoned and features a stake for each man surrounding a statue of a blindfolded soldier.
The memorial was created before mutineers were pardoned in 2006 and campaigners have now won permission to add three stakes to the memorial. They are trying to trace Cpl Short’s relatives to play a part in a dedication ceremony October.
Cpl Short, was working as a miner at Heworth Colliery and living in Parkinson Street, Felling Gateshead, with his wife Dinah and two young children, when the First World War began.
On September 11 1917, Cpl Short was at the base camp at Etaples, where having recovered either from wounds or illness, he was undergoing re-training before being returned to the front line.
Disturbances broke out in the camp that day, possibly caused by the harsh treatment meted out by camp’s instructors, and one group of 80 soldiers carrying placards and armed with sticks marched on a bridge across the river Canache.
 |
| Shot at Dawn statue |
Cpl Short was court martialled the next day, found guilty of inciting mutiny and sentenced to death. He was executed weeks later.
Campaigners will also be remembering New Zealander Private Cecil John ‘Jack’ Braithwaite, and British Gunner William Lewis, 124th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, both executed in October 1916.
Military historian Richard Pursehouse, who with Lee Dent founded The Chase Project, said: “Following a meeting the National Arboretum Landscapes and Memorials Committee it has been agreed that three additional stakes can be incorporated at the site.
“Relatives of Pte Braithwaite are hoping to come over for the ceremony. We would very much like to get hold of relatives of Cpl Short to take part.”
Anyone who may be related to Cpl Short should email thechaseproject@gmail.com
- Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com - Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
DPN particularly wishes to thank The Chase Project for this submission.
0 Response to "WWI British mutineers to be honoured at memorial"
Post a Comment