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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. George Ward
British Army 1st Btn. Royal Berkshire Regiment
(d.26th Sep 1914)
George Ward served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment 1st Battalion. He was executed for cowardice 26/09/1914. He is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the Missing, Seine-et-Marne, France.
Private George Ward aged 20 years who was executed on 26th September 1914, his was the second execution of the war. What is astonishing about the case of Pte. Ward is that his offence occurred on the 14th September his third day of active service. He had landed in France on 12th September and the brief duration of his service, before committing the crime of ‘cowardice’ that cost him his life, was the shortest of the war.
A soldier who was a member of a firing squad described what happened. ‘I think it was hard lines that I should have had to make one of the firing party, as he was a chum of mine. . . We were told that the only humane thing that we could do was to shoot straight. The two men were led out blindfolded, tied to posts driven into the ground, and then we received our orders by sign from our officer, so that the condemned men should not hear us getting ready. Our officer felt it very much, as he, like me, knew one of the fellows years before. The other I never knew, but his case was every bit as sad, he was only a boy’.
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