must be assumed, therefore, that despite everything he supported it.
An example of a last letter home, in this case from Private Albert Troughton, can be found in Appendix 4.
† † †
Another army chaplain, Martin Andrews, was present for the execution of Private Alfred Ansted of the 4th Royal Fusiliers. Ansted was executed on 15 November 1916 having been found guilty of desertion. In addition to his official duties, Andrews brought Ansted two pills to ‘put in his tea’ and ‘which would make him sleep better’.
The Reverend Harry Blackburne (1932) was required to officiate at the double execution of Lance-Corporal William Price and Private Richard Morgan, 2nd Welsh Regiment. Both men had been found guilty of murder and were executed on 15 February 1915. On the night before the execution, he read them the parable of the prodigal son and then prayed with them; in a letter to his wife, he said, ‘now I must go and be with them to the end. Thank God, it is all over’ (Putkowski and Dunning, 2012).
Captain T. Guy Rogers, MC, who was chaplain to the 2nd Guards Brigade, was ordered to attend the execution of Private H.T.W. Phillips, 1st Coldstream Guards, which took place on 30 May 1916, for the offence of desertion. In his letters, kept at the Imperial War Museum, Rogers wrote:
It has just fallen to my lot to prepare a deserter for his death – that meant breaking the news to him, helping him with his last letters, passing the night with him on the straw in his cell, and trying to prepare his soul for meeting God: the execution and burying him immediately … Monday night I was with him, Tuesday morning at 3.30 he was shot. He lay beside me for hours with his hand in mine. Poor fellow, it was a bad case, but he met his end bravely, and drank all I could teach him about God, his father, Jesus his Saviour, the reality of forgiveness of sins. I feel shaken by it all, but my nerves, thank God, have not troubled me.
Although this letter demonstrates some sympathy for the plight of Private Phillips, there is again no indication that Rogers actually opposed the sentence, whereas there is more than a suggestion of feeling sorry for himself and of wanting the reader of the letter to share those feelings.
† † †
However, although not in the British Army, one chaplain, Canon F.G. Scott, senior chaplain to the 1st Canadian Division, did try to stop an execution going ahead, and his recollections are valid in the context of this book. The condemned man is not named by Scott but Putkowski and Sykes (1998) have identified him as Company Quartermaster Sergeant William Alexander of the 10th Canadian Expeditionary Force (Alberta Regiment). Alexander’s offence was desertion; however, despite Scott lobbying senior officers on two occasions, the execution went ahead on 18 October 1917.
Alexander was in a cell under guard when Scott arrived, sitting at a table with a bottle of brandy and writing materials. In the ensuing conversation, Alexander revealed that he had never been baptised and in the time that was left this was something that he wished to rectify, so Scott performed what must have been one of the bleakest baptisms he ever carried out. Scott was impressed by the man and said, ‘I kept wondering if I could not even then, at that late hour, do something to avert the carrying out of the sentence.’
Keeping his feelings to himself and certainly not giving hope to Alexander, as that would have been cruel, in the early hours of the morning Scott walked to army headquarters to ask the army commander, a general, to commute Alexander’s sentence. The general explained to Scott that, as the due process had been followed and the sentence had been confirmed by the British commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Haig, the decision would stand unless new evidence could be presented. The general suggested that mental weakness or insanity might cause a stay of execution and a new trial, which gave Scott some hope.
When he
An example of a last letter home, in this case from Private Albert Troughton, can be found in Appendix 4.
† † †
Another army chaplain, Martin Andrews, was present for the execution of Private Alfred Ansted of the 4th Royal Fusiliers. Ansted was executed on 15 November 1916 having been found guilty of desertion. In addition to his official duties, Andrews brought Ansted two pills to ‘put in his tea’ and ‘which would make him sleep better’.
The Reverend Harry Blackburne (1932) was required to officiate at the double execution of Lance-Corporal William Price and Private Richard Morgan, 2nd Welsh Regiment. Both men had been found guilty of murder and were executed on 15 February 1915. On the night before the execution, he read them the parable of the prodigal son and then prayed with them; in a letter to his wife, he said, ‘now I must go and be with them to the end. Thank God, it is all over’ (Putkowski and Dunning, 2012).
Captain T. Guy Rogers, MC, who was chaplain to the 2nd Guards Brigade, was ordered to attend the execution of Private H.T.W. Phillips, 1st Coldstream Guards, which took place on 30 May 1916, for the offence of desertion. In his letters, kept at the Imperial War Museum, Rogers wrote:
It has just fallen to my lot to prepare a deserter for his death – that meant breaking the news to him, helping him with his last letters, passing the night with him on the straw in his cell, and trying to prepare his soul for meeting God: the execution and burying him immediately … Monday night I was with him, Tuesday morning at 3.30 he was shot. He lay beside me for hours with his hand in mine. Poor fellow, it was a bad case, but he met his end bravely, and drank all I could teach him about God, his father, Jesus his Saviour, the reality of forgiveness of sins. I feel shaken by it all, but my nerves, thank God, have not troubled me.
Although this letter demonstrates some sympathy for the plight of Private Phillips, there is again no indication that Rogers actually opposed the sentence, whereas there is more than a suggestion of feeling sorry for himself and of wanting the reader of the letter to share those feelings.
† † †
However, although not in the British Army, one chaplain, Canon F.G. Scott, senior chaplain to the 1st Canadian Division, did try to stop an execution going ahead, and his recollections are valid in the context of this book. The condemned man is not named by Scott but Putkowski and Sykes (1998) have identified him as Company Quartermaster Sergeant William Alexander of the 10th Canadian Expeditionary Force (Alberta Regiment). Alexander’s offence was desertion; however, despite Scott lobbying senior officers on two occasions, the execution went ahead on 18 October 1917.
Alexander was in a cell under guard when Scott arrived, sitting at a table with a bottle of brandy and writing materials. In the ensuing conversation, Alexander revealed that he had never been baptised and in the time that was left this was something that he wished to rectify, so Scott performed what must have been one of the bleakest baptisms he ever carried out. Scott was impressed by the man and said, ‘I kept wondering if I could not even then, at that late hour, do something to avert the carrying out of the sentence.’
Keeping his feelings to himself and certainly not giving hope to Alexander, as that would have been cruel, in the early hours of the morning Scott walked to army headquarters to ask the army commander, a general, to commute Alexander’s sentence. The general explained to Scott that, as the due process had been followed and the sentence had been confirmed by the British commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Haig, the decision would stand unless new evidence could be presented. The general suggested that mental weakness or insanity might cause a stay of execution and a new trial, which gave Scott some hope.
When he
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