Pardoned soldiers' names to be added to memorial on Sunday

Feb 16 2007 By Tara Brady

TWO soldiers shot by firing squad at dawn for military misconduct during the First World War will be officially remembered this Sunday.

A special service will be held at 2.30pm at the Wealdstone Clock Tower War Memorial in High Road, Wealdstone, for soldiers Harry Farr and James Swaine.

Private Farr and Private Swaine were among more than 300 soldiers to receive posthumous pardons after the Secretary of State for Defence John Reid amended the Armed Forces Bill last year.

The new ruling pardoned anyone executed for military offences such as cowardice and desertion during the First World War.

Pte Farr's 94-year-old daughter Gertrude Harris, said: "I have always argued that my father's refusal to rejoin the frontline, described by the court marshall as cowardice, was in fact the result of shellshock."

Farr was a front line soldier for more than two years and served at several of the war's bloodiest conflicts including the Battle of the Somme before refusing an order to return to the frontline on Setempber 17, 1917. He was sentenced to death by firing squad.

At 34-years-old Pte Swain enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery and served on the frontline for 17 months. He failed to return from a home visit after falling sick.

Swain was arrested and sent back to France where he was found guilty of desertion and was also executed by firing squad at dawn.

The dedication and rememberance service will be led by the Bishop of Willesden, the Right Reverend Peter Broadbent and Mayor of Harrow Councillor Janet Cowan (Conservative).

Representatives of the Royal British Legion and Harrow Weald Memorial Club will also attend.

Councillor Chris Mote, leader of the council, said: "I think the decision is long overdue given the incredibly harsh conditions soldiers had to endure in the trenches year in, year out."

The soldiers' names will be carved on to the war memorial this summer.