Memorial for pardoned soldiers

8:32am Saturday 10th February 2007

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TWO soldiers executed by the British Army during the First World War will be honoured on a memorial next week, 90 years after their deaths.

Private Harry Farr was branded a coward after a 20-minute court martial, while Driver James Swaine was shot for being a deserter. Both men died in 1916.

Before Private Farr's death, he spent five months in hospital being treated for shellshock.

He was executed after refusing to fight at the Battle of the Somme.

His daughter, Gertrude Harris, 93, of Blackwell Close, Harrow Weald, and granddaughter, Janet Booth, 64, of Farnham, argued his medical history was never taken into account during his trial.

They took the Ministry of Defence to the High Court on three occasions to get him, and 301 other soldiers, pardoned.

Their 15-year campaign ended last year when an amendment was made to the Armed Forces Act, clearing the names of hundreds of wrongly-executed soldiers.

Gertrude said: "It has been wonderful that we got the pardon for Harry and the other soldiers. The cherry on the cake is his name being put on the war memorial."

Driver Swaine moved to Herga Road, in Wealdstone, with his wife and two children, between 1912 and 1914. He originally joined the Royal Horse and Field Artillery in 1900 until 1903 and re-enlisted in 1914 at the age of 34.

Terry Morrish, 73, Driver Swaine's grandson, said he was killed despite being declared medically unfit by doctors at Mount Vernon Hospital. Terry only found out about his grandfather's death at his mother's funeral in 1979.

He said: "I was never told anything. I grew up believing my step-grandfather was my real grandfather."

Driver Swaine came home for Christmas in 1915 but never returned to the front line. He was arrested and sent to Northern France without his family's knowledge. Terry said: "He had already served 17 months. He was caught going into a pub in Willesden.

"They didn't let him go home or speak to his family. He was executed a few months later, his wife and my mother never knew where he was buried."

On February 18 at 2.30pm, close relatives of Private Farr and Driver Swaine will finally see their loved one's names set in stone on the Wealdstone War Memorial in Spencer Road, Wealdstone.