The Church of Ireland Standing Committee, meeting in Dublin this week, has given its unanimous support to the Shot at Dawn Campaign, which seeks posthumous pardons for 306 British Army personnel executed during World War 1. This follows a request for help in co-ordinating the campaign from the Irish Seaman’s Relatives Association.

The Shot at Dawn Campaign was launched in 1990 by John Hipkin of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on the release of court martial documents by the Public Record Office. These included Field General Courts Martial files relating to soldiers shot at dawn by the British Army for military offences under the Army Act.

In his request for support Mr Peter Mulvany, Chairman of the Irish Seamen’s Relatives Association, writes: “There were 306 soldiers, including young boys, executed and most were suffering from what was then known as 'shell shock' and today as post traumatic stress disorder. They did not deserve the death penalty. Surviving relatives are still penalised by these miscarriages of justice. They have to live with the stigma of their loved ones alleged cowardice.”

The Shot at Dawn Campaign does not seek pardons for all the executed British and Commonwealth soldiers of World War One; some were found guilty of murder, rape and other offences that would have been crimes under civil law. It is the military offences of cowardice, desertion, sleeping at post and casting away arms for which pardons are sought which were offences under the British Army Act and were abolished in 1930. It was not until 1998 that the death penalty was finally abolished for all military offences ‘in peace and in war’.

For further information on-line, there are two dedicated web-sites; the official web-site of the Shot at Dawn Campaign at http://www.shotatdawn.org.uk and the Executed for Example site at http://www.clarkehome58.freeserve.co.uk