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217650 John Joseph Sweeney New Zealand Expeditionary Force 1st Btn. Otago Regiment from:New Zealand (d.2nd Oct 1916) John Sweeney was an Australian of Tasmanian origin. He was shot for desertion. It is though that Sweeney was suffering from battle fatigue after having spent time doing perhaps one of the hardest war jobs - tunnelling under enemy lines. His courageous service as one of our original ANZACs at Gallipoli was not taken into account at the time of his court-martialling for desertion. After spending time in an Egyptian hospital recovering he was sent to France but couldn't face going to the front any longer - so he never turned up. Arrested after several weeks wandering behind the lines, his files show he was court-martialled and sentenced to “suffer death by being shot” on the very day of the first New Zealand attack on the Somme. His brother died on the Western Front in 1918 and his father committed suicide in 1925, just before details of execution were made public. He was posthumously pardoned on 14 September 2000, when New Zealand's Pardon for Soldiers of the Great War Act became law. Please type your message:      We recommend you copy the text about this item and keep a copy on your own computer before pressing submit. Your Name:             Email Address:       @ **Please put first part of your email, (before the @ sign) in the first box, and the second part in the second box. Do not include @, it is automatic. Do not enter your full email in each box or add an @ sign or random spaces.**