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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
L/Cpl. Peter Goggins
British Army 19th Btn. Durham Light Infantry
(d.18th Jan 1917)
Peter Goggind served with the Durham Light Infantry 19th Battalion He was executed for quitting his post on18th January1917 and is buried in St. Pol Communal Cemetery Extension, St. Pol-sur-Ternoise, France.
Despite following the orders to retreat of an NCO who shouted, "Run for your lives, the Huns are on top of you!", Sgt Peter Goggins was shot for deserting his post. The 22-year-old soldier, who had married six months before his death in January 1917, was commanding a unit of six soldiers in the front line, when a sergeant came running back from a reconnaissance mission yelling at them to withdraw. Sgt Goggins scrambled out of his dugout and fell back to a reserve trench 20 yards away - but it turned out to be a false alarm. Even though the sergeant confirmed that he had given the orders to retreat, Goggins was court martialled on Christmas Eve and executed a week later. His 19-year-old wife Margaret disappeared when she heard the news and his mother had a nervous breakdown.
Peter was one of seven soldiers guarding their positions in the early hours of 26th of November 1916. Most of his fellow soldiers from 19th Durham Light Infantry had been taken off the frontline after rumours the Germans were about to launch a gas attack. As the guns fell silent, a sergeant and captain ventured into No Man's Land for a reccee -- but they were ambushed. It was shortly after 2.30am when the sergeant managed to stagger back, shouting: "Run for your lives, the Huns are on top of you!" Peter, himself a young sergeant, scrambled out of the dugout, withdrawing to a reserve trench 20 yards away - but it turned out to be a false alarm.
With the six others, he faced charges of deserting his post, and was court-martialled on Christmas Eve. Even though the sergeant confirmed he had given the orders to retreat, Peter was executed a week later along with two others. Another soldier wrote a moving account of the execution: "A piercingly cold dawn' a crowd of brass hats, the medical officer and three firing parties. A motor ambulance arrives carrying the doomed men. Manacled and blindfolded, they are tied up to the stakes. Over each man's heart is placed an envelope. At the sign, the firing parties, 12 for each, align rifles on the envelopes. The officer holds his stick aloft and, as it falls, 36 bullets usher the souls of Kitchener's men to the great unknown."
Peter's niece Marina Brewis, 74, of Stanley, Co Durham, said: "I read the reports of my uncle's court martial and it is obvious that he was shot simply as an example to others. An apology from the Government isn't enough, I want a piece of paper pardoning my uncle. I won't rest until I get it."
Dedicated to Peter Goggins, by Katie Hopley (16)
- How can you kill someone
- For being afraid?
- That is disgusting!
- You should be ashamed
- As members are shot
- Families back home are torn apart
- They’re all branded
- Where’s the heart?
- not killed by the enemy
- They now lose their name
- Branded as cowards
- Their families the same!
- Over 300 men
- They all need to die?
- A thirst for blood
- That’s why!
- So end this injustice!
- Give them all back their name
- Only then will you end
- Our country's 84 year shame
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