PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
PARDONS FOR SOLDIERS EXECUTED DURING THE GREAT WAR (14 November 2005)

That this House regrets that 13 years have passed since the tabling of a motion which requested the restoration of the names and reputations of the 307 soldiers of the British Empire Forces court martialled and executed, mostly on the Western Front in the four years from 1914 to 1918, and now reiterates that request; recalls that those men faced charges ranging from desertion, cowardice, quitting posts, sleeping at posts, disobedience, striking a superior officer and casting away arms; regrets the deficiences in their opportunity to prepare adequate defence and appeals; recognises that these soldiers endured long periods of severe cold and damp, lack of food and sleep coupled with the stress associated with constant shellfire; considers that the vast majority of the 307 executed were as patriotic and brave as their million other compatriots who perished in the conflict, and that even if the behaviour of a small minority of the 307 may have fallen below that of the highest standards then time, compassion and justice dictates that all of these soldiers should now be treated as victims of the conflict; and urges the Prime Minister to recommend a posthumous pardon for all 307, thus bringing to a close a deeply unhappy and controversial chapter in the history of the Great War.

Sponsored by:
Andrew Mackinlay (Labour)