Free Executed at Dawn by David Johnson Page A

Lister (2013), where they in fact refer to the execution of a young soldier, Private Abraham Beverstein, of the 11th Middlesex Regiment, who had enlisted at the age of 18 under the assumed name of Harris, and was executed on 20 March 1916 when just 19. Beverstein enlisted under a false name because it was considered dishonourable in certain Jewish circles to be a soldier, and Harris is the name on his gravestone.
    Private Beverstein had written to his mother on 2 July 1915 to tell her that he had been ‘in the trenches four times and came out safe’. In January 1916, the Beverstein family received notification from the Infantry Record Office, dated 15 January, informing them that Private Beverstein ‘was ill at 38th Field Ambulance, France, suffering from wounds and shock (mine explosion)’.
    A couple of weeks later the family received a letter from Private Beverstein in which he wrote:

    Dear Mother, we were in the trenches and I was ill, so I went out and they took me and put me in prison, and I am in a bit of trouble now and won’t get any money for a long time. I will have to go in front of a court. I will try my best to get out of it. But dear Mother, try to send some money. I will let you know in my next [letter] how I get on. Give my best love to Father and Kath.

    The letter is interesting in many ways because it is not clear whether by his comment, ‘I will try my best to get out of it’, Private Beverstein knew that he faced the death penalty and was putting on a brave face for his family or whether he really was unaware of the seriousness of the situation he was in. If it was the former, then he was being very brave, but if it was the latter, then it demonstrates that two years after the start of the war the deterrent aspect of the penalty was not working.
    In April 1916, the family was informed that Private Beverstein had been shot for desertion just weeks after being in a field hospital suffering from wounds and shock.
    It is likely that the other soldier executed was Private Samuel McBride of the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles as he is the only other soldier listed in Corns and Hughes-Wilson who was executed on that date and, like Beverstein, he was also buried in the Sailly-Labourse Communal Cemetery.
    Interestingly, for each man executed, the firing squad constituted just two men and not the number given in Guilford’s notes above. Nearly 100 years later, we can only imagine what those four men felt both before and after the execution, given that there is no mention of blank ammunition, and each would have been aware, as would have been the APM and the officer in charge, of whether or not their bullets had found their target.
    In 1916, the soldiers of the 18th Manchester Regiment were dismayed to be told that one of their comrades was to be shot for desertion, and on this occasion the firing squad consisted of six men, who were told by an equally unhappy officer (Moore): ‘I only hope to God you shoot straight.’
    On this occasion, those in the firing squad were separated from the rest of the regiment the night before the execution to receive their instructions. As a reward for the unpleasant task ahead of them, they were allowed to relax and enjoy a drink, although they would have been supervised to ensure that none drank enough to render themselves senseless and therefore unable to take part the next morning. The soldier, Private William Hunt, was executed on 14 November 1916 for the offence of desertion. Hunt was certified as dead by Lieutenant G.C. Robinson, RAMC.
    On 23 March 1916, Private F. Charles Bladen was executed for the offence of desertion by a firing squad of twelve men drawn from his own battalion of the 10th York and Lancaster Regiment. On the eve of the execution, the entire firing squad was taken by bus some distance away from the rest of their regiment, under specific instructions that they should not be told of the task awaiting them.

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    As the war progressed, it became the