Their names do not appear on any war memorial, or in any book of remembrance.
But once again, in a little-known ceremony staged solemnly every year in the grandeur of Manchester Cathedral, our city paused to remember them. All soldiers, the 13 lost their lives amid the unimaginable horrors of the First World War.
For them, the horror was simply too much to endure as their mental health breakdowns and disorders, now linked to shell shock and stress caused by prolonged artillery bombardment in the mud-soaked trenches of battlefields, were dismissed as cowardice by their seniors.
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Consumed by illness and terror, many ran away. All 13 paid the price with their lives – executed by the very same country they fought for.
The twelfth annual ‘shot at dawn ceremony’ was conducted with civic dignitaries from Greater Manchester present in the Regimental Chapel at Manchester Cathedral.
A solemn service is held once a year(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The chapel holds seven books of remembrance in total – dedicated to the memory of 14,808 men from the Manchester Regiment who fell during the First World War and subsequent conflicts from 1920 to 2025. Every two weeks, a short ceremony called the ‘turning of the leaves’ is held by volunteers at the chapel, where the pages of the books are turned in their memory
The shot at dawn ceremony, however, is dedicated to the 13 men from the Manchester Regiment and the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment who were executed after trial during the First World War for cowardice.
All were pardoned in 2006 by the British Government – and the gathering serves to ensure their names will never be forgotten.
One soldier, who fought during the Battle of the Somme, reportedly told his military trial that he ‘did not know what I was doing’. He also reported how bully soldiers hurled stones at him to trick him into believing it was incoming shrapnel from an attack.
A total of 306 men executed were pardoned by the British Government in 2006 – 20 years ago.
Today it’s recognised that the soldiers – all shot for desertion or cowardice -were in fact suffering from mental disorders caused by stress inflicted by constant combat.
The Lord Mayor of Manchester, councillor Carmine Grimshaw(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“The Government believes that the time is now right to remove the dishonour that still taints the memory of those servicemen who were executed, which, clearly, is still deeply felt by their families today,” read a statement issued at the time. “Now, almost 90 years after the end of the First World War, it is time for us to recognise that execution was not a fate that those soldiers deserved.”
A thin February light filters through the ornate windows of the chapel as a line of veterans proceed inside in silence.
Shoes strike the stone floor in synchronisation, their regimental ties neat against their dark jackets. They stand at the front of the chapel to honour the 13 men whose own experiences of conflict ended very differently to theirs.
Eyes are closed, heads bowed and standards lowered as the names of the 13 are read out aloud.
Private William Wycherley was just 24 and from Cheetham Hill. His crime was ‘desertion’ and he’s buried in Belgium. He was shot in September, 1917. Wycherley was said to have been punished for overstaying home leave by seven weeks and later again for deserting his battalion. Records show he offended for a third time and was arrested at Étaples, France, where he was said to have given a false ID.
Private James Smith, from Bolton, was executed for desertion and disobedience on September 5, 1917, aged 26. He had seen combat on the first day of the Ypres offensive.
The trenches of the Somme(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Private Thomas Brigham was executed for desertion in June 1918 and Private Thomas Foulkes in November 1917. Foulkes was just 21.
Private Ellis Holt was executed for desertion in March 1917, aged 22. He was said to have been under a suspended sentence of two years’ imprisonment with hard labour when he deserted from the Arras front.
Private William Hunt was executed for desertion in November 1916 aged just 20. Despite his young age, Hunt was a regular soldier who had served on the Western Front for roughly two years. He was tried by Field General Court Martial (FGCM) on October 22, 1916, for desertion after absconding from the 18th Manchesters. He was said to have had an ‘intent of avoiding front-line duty’ and a previous conviction for disobedience.
Private Albert Ingham was executed for desertion in December 1916. He had apparently been caught in civilian clothes on board a Swedish ship about to sail from Dieppe with his friend, Private Alfred Longshaw. His death certificate states ‘shot by sentence of FGCM for desertion’. Private Longshaw was also executed for desertion on the same day.
Kingsman Joseph Brennan was executed for desertion in July, 1916. Brennan was said to have gone missing on the Arras front and was also shot after a court martial held in the field.
The ceremony at the cathedral(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Kingsman John McFarlane was executed for desertion in May aged 27 and 12 Kingsman James Smith for the same crime aged 26. Kingsman James Tongue was shot for desertion in January 1917. James Anderson, meanwhile, was said to have suffered from shell shock and was shot for ‘cowardice’ during the Somme offensive. Also a kingsman he was reportedly executed after leaving a working party, stating his nerves had gone and he could ‘stick it no longer’.
Kingsman Bernard McGeehan was shot at Dawn on November 2, 1916. At his trial, he said he ‘did not know what I was doing’ and reported being treated badly by fellow soldiers, who would throw stones at him to convince him it was shrapnel from an attack.
Graham Braithwaite, chairman of the Manchester Branch of The Manchester, King’s and Duke of Lancaster’s Regimental Association, said the ‘stigma’ of the men shot weighed heavily on their families.
Photographs of them were taken down from walls and mantelpieces inside their homes and their names weren’t spoken of in their villages. There are no known photos of the 13 as a result.
Mr Braithwaite said: “The ‘turning of the leaves service’ started in 1937 and then was held every week. After the Second World War the chapel was bombed in the Blitz and wasn’t rebuilt until 1951. We hold a service every two weeks, but this one is dedicated to the men who lost their lives in the First World War through no fault of their own.
The Mayor of Rochdale, councillor Janet Emsley(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“Although we have been conducting this service for quite a long time now, the men that were lost are now recovered in our opinion. The men were battered by war, men who we now know would have had post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of mental illness, including what was then known as shell shock.
“We recognise these men as part of our own remembrance service now because the stigma of being ‘shot at dawn’ was something the families were ashamed of and what we are saying is that the families’ shame should be removed. To remove that we have to stop recalling them as men who were ‘shot at dawn’ for cowardness and desertion.
“They were men who were victims of war and who are remembered within the chapel each year because they are not in the books of remembrance. Until they are, we don’t see we can do anything else but hold a service to them.”
Mr Braithwaite said he would ‘love to right a wrong’, but referenced financial constraints of inscribing names onto war memorial;s.
“When war memorials were first created, built in each of the communities, you had to submit a name so many soldiers’ names are not on war memorials,” he added.
The service is held once a year(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“One in particular I know of is at Stalybridge in Tameside. They have over 300 names that are not listed on their memorial and it must be the same for all other war memorials. We can’t ask them to add all the names, it would cost them an absolute fortune.
“But where we know there has been a miscarriage of justice, as in this case, these victims of war who went off to war and for whatever reason died, should be remembered, especially because of the families and renaming them as we do as victims of war removes that stigma of being ‘shot at dawn’, and that’s what’s important for us.
“They should be remembered and are remembered by us. But so are many others. I was close to tears during the service. To have a life cut short in that way means that you have no ancestors, but that was the same for the other 800,000 men who died.
“In those books of remembrance there are 14,808 names of men who had no future, whose families had no future because it ended with them and that’s the main reason I began this. By remembering what has happened in the past we try to not make the same mistakes in the future, which we didn’t in 1939. We want to try and not repeat what’s happened in the past.”
