Poignant ceremony held to honour servicemen at National Memorial Arboretum - WATCH
They were shot dead for refusing to obey their commanding officers in the First World War.
Now, 100 years to the day that two of them died, three men have been commemorated with a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
Jack Braithwaite, from the New Zealand Otago Regiment and William Lewis from Scotland, were executed on October 29, 1916, while Jesse Robert Short, from Newcastle Upon Tyne, was killed one year later.
On Saturday their names were inscribed on individual plaques attached to wooden stakes near the Shot at Dawn memorial.
The three men join 306 others remembered there. They were all shot for alleged desertion or cowardice during the Great War.
Family and representatives of each of the men attended the ceremony on Saturday. Jack Braithwaite's nephew, David Braithwaite, from New Zealand, was one of them.
The 79-year-old said: "My uncle was executed exactly 100 years ago today. It gives closure for our family. We have had some challenges over the past 20 years in trying to get what we thought was wrong.
"My father was the youngest of a family of 24 children. He never told me or our family anything about Jack's demise and those were the days when mutiny was a scandal."
Jack Braithwaite had lost his stripe in May 1916 for being absent without leave. But this was followed by three court-martials in June and July 1916 for acts such as stating a falsehood to an officer, absent without leave and two charges of escaping confinement and escaping while being escorted to a field punishment compound.
Among the guests who attended the service were relatives of the soldiers – Bryan Ritchie and his wife, Marilyn, from Edinburgh on William Lewis' behalf; Jack Braithwaite's nephew, David Braithwaite, from New Zealand, and his wife, Rae; and Jesse Robert Short's grandson, Neil Graham, among others along with other family members. Mr Ritchie, from Edinburgh, said: "I was there to represent my great uncle was shot at dawn 100 years ago today. I don't even know if my mum knows that her uncle existed.
"To think 100 years ago today my great uncle stood in front of a firing squad and was shot at the age of 30."
The memorial was created by Birmingham artist Mr DeComyn in 2000.
It was unveiled by Gertrude Harris, daughter of Pvte Harry Farr, in June 2001. During the 1914-18 war, 346 British and Commonwealth soldiers were executed – a higher figure than those recorded by both the French and Germans.
