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Recognition for pardoned soldiers | Recognition for pardoned soldiers |
(about 16 hours later) | |
Two World War I soldiers who were shot dead for cowardice but pardoned 90 years later have been formally honoured on a war memorial. | |
The names of Privates Harry Farr and James Swaine were unveiled on Sunday in a ceremony at the Wealdstone war memorial, in north-west London. | |
The two men were among 300 soldiers to receive posthumous pardons last year. | The two men were among 300 soldiers to receive posthumous pardons last year. |
Pte Farr's 94-year-old daughter Gertrude Harris said the service for her father was "the icing on the cake". | |
'Brave man' | |
"I have always argued that my father's refusal to rejoin the frontline, described in the court martial as resulting from cowardice, was in fact the result of shell shock," she said. | |
"I cannot believe that his name is now going to be remembered for future years, proving that he wasn't a coward but a very brave soldier." | |
Pte Farr, 25, of Kensington, west London, was stationed with the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. | |
The names of the two soldiers will be carved onto the wall memorial this summer. | |
Pte Swaine first served in the army in 1900 in the Royal Horse Artillery aged 34. | |
Pte Harry Farr was honoured in the ceremony | |
He left three years later but re-enlisted as a driver at the beginning of World War I | |
He served on the frontline for 17 months but failed to return from his home leave after falling sick. | |
Pte Swaine was then arrested and sent back to France and later found guilty of desertion and was then executed by firing squad at dawn. | |
His grandson, Terry Morrish, only found out about his grandfather's fate after his mother died in 1975. | |
He said: "No one knows what he went through but the fact that he volunteered for active service as well as serve 17 months is testament to the fact that he was a brave man whose only crime was being human." | |
The service for the two Privates was led by the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Rev Peter Broadbent, and was attended by representatives of the Royal British Legion. |
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