Shot at Dawn Re-opening

On Friday 21 June we will be joined by sculptor Andy Decomyn, and Janet Booth, granddaughter of Harry Farr who was executed for cowardice in 1916, for the re-opening of the Shot at Dawn Memorial.

The Shot at Dawn Memorial commemorates 309 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were shot for desertion, cowardice, striking a senior officer, disobeying a lawful order, casting away arms, mutiny and sleeping at post during the First World War. Most of them were sentenced after a short trial at which no real opportunity for defence was allowed.

Today, it is recognised that some were underage when they volunteered and that many of them were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which was not recognised as a medical condition until 1980. In 2006 they were officially pardoned by the British Government.

Deliberately located at the most easterly part of the Arboretum where the sun rises first, Shot at Dawn, first dedicated in 2001, was showing its age, exacerbated by repeated winter flooding from the adjacent River Tame.