YPRES RESERVOIR CEMETERY
Private Thomas Lionel Moles,
54th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, executed for desertion 22/10/1917 Thomas Moles was a native of Somerset and during his residence in England had served in the Somerset Light Infantry. He then emigrated to Canada and enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in August 1915 and by the Autumn of that year he was on the Western Front. The exact circumstances of his offence are not known, but he was tried for desertion on the 4th October 1917 and sentenced to death the sentence being confirmed and carried out on the 22nd October 1917. |
Private Ernest Lawrence
2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment executed for desertion 22/11/1917 On the 5th May 1917 he had been sent back from the support line to fetch rations from a dump but instead made his way to Rouen where he reported himself and told a false story: he was returned to his unit and on the 8th May was detailed to work in the front line but again absconded to Rouen where he was arrested. In his possession he had a false paybook and movement order. He escaped from his escort and took up employment in the Royal Flying Corps repair workshops in Rouen until his arrest in August 1917.At his Court Martial he was not surprisingly sentenced to death and the execution took place on the 22nd November 1917. |
Private Charles McColl,
1st/4th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, executed for desertion 28/12/1917 Private McColl had enlisted into the 11th East Yorkshire Regiment in 1914 and at the end of 1915 sailed to Egypt before the battalion was recalled to the Western Front. In September 1916 his unit had been holding the line near Neuve Chapelle when he was wounded by a shell and invalided home with heart failure. Upon his return to France he was posted to the 4th East Yorkshire Regiment but soon went absent receiving a sentence of 10 years imprisonment. On the 28th October 1`917 Private McColl absconded from his platoon in brigade support near Houlthult Forest in the Ypres sector leaving behind his rifle and equipment. Four days later he was arrested in Calais after enquiring abut a rest camp and stating he was on his way to England. At his court-martial he was not represented and detailed his nervous condition and inability to control himself when in the trenches. No medical examination was ordered and he was sentenced to death. He was held in a military prison at Brandhoek then on the eve of his execution brought to the prison at Ypres when he was told of confirmation of the sentence of death. As dawn approached he was manacled and blindfolded with a reverse gas mask and taken out and strapped to a chair and shot. Until recently two soldiers with personal knowledge of Private McColl described him as unstable and slow and that there was something wrong with him. Information courtesy of www.ww1wargraves.co.uk |
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