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Pte. Charles Frederick McColl
British Army 1/4th Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment
from:6 Bramham Avenue, Hull
(d.28th Dec 1917)
Charles McColl was a shipyard plater and therefore exempt from military service but he voluntarily joined the Army on 7th of September 1914. He 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 1917 Private McColl absconded from his platoon which was 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 about 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. He was tried by Field General Court Martial on a number of occasions but the final, fatal proceedings took place at Brandhoek on 21 December 1917. One of the two members of the court, Captain C.J.A. Pollock, was from the defendant’s own unit and although they were assisted by a Court Martial officer, Captain F.S.A. Baker, Private Charles McColl was undefended and 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. This story is told by Julian Putkowski in his book "Shot At Dawn" (The Sad Campaign to Secure Millennium Pardons for British and Commonwealth Soldiers Executed during the First World War) The disciplinary regime exercised by the British Army during the First World War was truly draconian and I still believe that the conditional pardon does not represent an adequate acknowledgement of the disgraceful fashion in which these men were culled and the hardships endured by many relatives and dependents. (This comment from Julian Putkowski re: British Govt Pardon to Executed Soldiers, Section 359 of the Armed Forces Act 2006)
Private C. F. McColl, 1/4th Bn. East Yorkshire Regiment was executed for desertion 28/12/1917.
Update: There are lots of errors in the original story of McColl. For example, he never went to Egypt, he was AWOL. These are often repeated from data in a very poorly researched book on those shot at dawn. Vanessa, who submitted the text, is aware and has seen our research.
We recently held a service for him as the Padre at his execution refused him his right to a Christian burial. Our UK and Belgian researchers have tried but can find no other instance of this having occurred.
The Hull People's Memorial adds to the story.
The above images are copyright (c) 2014 Hull People's Memorial. Alan Brigham
Additional Information:
McColl explained to the court: ”I was brought out of the guard room before going up to the line & was in a weak condition. This was about 26.10.17. We marched up to Marsoin Farm. I had complaints brought on by shellfire. I have heart failure & nervousness. I have been with this Bn. 6 months but only reported sick once. I always shake from head to foot when we go into the trenches. I enlisted in Sep. 1914 & went to Egypt in November 1915 & came to France in April 1916. I was buried by a shell at Colincamps in Sept. 1916 with 12th E. Yorks. I was on 2 or 3 raids & then my nerves went. I was invalided home in September 1916 suffering from 'heart failure' & nervousness & was classified A3 at the finish & sent back to France without any examination. Since coming to this bn. I have tried to do my best. When I went off they dropped shells all around me & this upset me more & more & I wandered away. At Calais I was in a weak condition & gave myself up to the M.F.P. I am not fit now. I had a knock on the head from a shell in Bus Wood.
Under cross-examination, the proceedings note that McColl added: “I have been in front line trenches with this bn. on about 6 different occasions. I have been here since July. The trenches I was in were at places I can't remember. One place was Bullfinch trench. I was there 8 days. Another place was Jackdaw trench.” He pleaded, “I am the only support of my mother who is a widow. I have tried to do my best.”
Unfortunately, while he had been stationed in Britain, McColl’s best efforts had not been very good. During 1915 he had been found guilty of a series of offences which included: stealing eggs, missing parades, being drunk, failing to buy a railway ticket and three minor absences without leave. More seriously, on 22nd og July 1917, McColl had gone AWOL from his battalion. He was arrested at Etaples Camp a month later, court martialled on 13th of September and sentenced to 10 years penal servitude. The period of confinement was reduced to two years imprisonment with hard labour and finally suspended on 2 October. However, while the confirmation and suspension of this sentence was being processed, McColl again went AWOL.
On 22 September, McColl had fled from his company in the trenches but he was picked up almost immediately at the battalion details camp, about four kilometres behind the front line. Court martialled on 11 October, McColl was found not guilty of desertion but guilty of absence without leave and had been punished with 90 days Field Punishment No.1.
A more severe punishment for the absence he had committed in December was inevitable and the court sentenced McColl to death. To be fair, the court had enquired whether Marsoin Farm had been shelled when McColl had fled for the last time. However, the court simply accepted the opinion of a prosecution witness, the platoon NCO’s assurance that Marsoin Farm had been neither heavily shelled nor damaged by enemy artillery when McColl had gone absent.
Also, given the nature of McColl’s explanation for his conduct, expert medical testimony about the state of the soldier’s nerves ought to have been aired during the trial. The issue was raised but the proceedings note that, “Medical evidence, tho' called for by the court, was not available.”
Field Marshal Haig did not confirm McColl’s sentence until 21 December but preparations to shoot the soldier were set in motion well before hand. Sergeant Len Cavinder, a devoutly religious NCO, and Pte. Danby were ordered by the Major H.B. Jackson, temporarily in command of 4th Btn. East Yorkshires, to collect McColl from Brandhoek and transport him in a Red Cross van to Ieper Prison. Of the doomed man himself, Cavinder later concluded: “He was subnormal actually. He was unstable. There was something wrong with him. I realised that you couldn’t get him to slope arms correctly, and all that sort of thing. He wasn’t simple but he was slow.” Ten men were also selected from Cavinder’s platoon, withdrawn from the line and rewarded with tots of whisky after practising the execution ritual. They were told that McColl had been living with a woman in St. Omer for six months and ordered to maintain absolute secrecy about their duty. Meanwhile, Cavinder remembered: “At Ypres gaol, I was given half a bottle of whisky and some tablets, and the injunctions were if you can get him to take them do so… This was about after tea time the day before he was (to be) shot, and the rest of that evening there was Danby and I trying to keep him quiet… well, to stop his questions – why was he being brought to this goal, what were we going to do with him.”
McColl’s last supper consisted of tea and white bread and butter from a sandbag in the corner of the cell plus half a glass of whisky and one of the tablets. At midnight the cell was visited by a number of red-tabbed staff officers, one of whom read out the death sentence. Cavinder recalled: “They trooped out, and he was like a raving maniac for a while. And then he settled down and then I got another drink down him, but he wouldn’t take much. He had an idea that we were trying to bamboozle him. But he got his photographs out, and started to hum …(a popular song).” The padre then put in an appearance and told McColl that, “He deserved to die and that he would go to hell if he didn’t ask for God’s forgiveness.” Cavinder was incensed at the padre’s tone and risked being arrested for insubordination by ejecting the latter from the cell. Thereafter, the sergeant offered spiritual comfort to the condemned man: “I wasn’t a Parson, no likelihood of being a Parson, but I knew what it was to try to help a chap to lead a better life or ask God’s forgiveness – I wanted it myself. So, eventually I got him to kneel down and say the Lord’s Prayer with me. Now we mumbled through it, but I’m sure that God would understand – I’m sure he would. And then… he was almost raving at times, because he knew what was coming you see, and we had to keep him on the cell bed. Hold him down sort of thing. And then he calmed down… But it was just becoming daylight when in came two Military Police. And they put on a respirator – the bag kind that we used to have in 1915 and ’16… and turned the eyepieces round and the nose piece, so he could see nothing. They fastened that on him. They pinned a piece of paper…on his chest… and before they fastened the manacles (behind him) I shook hands with him and I said, ‘God bless you’… we were like that. Everybody who took part in it was affected. It was a terrible thing, you know, to usher a man into eternity whether it was the law or not.”
Cavinder also witnessed McColl’s execution and carried out his burial: “They took him round the corner of the cell to the wall… They strapped him on a chair, that was it, with his hands behind the back of the chair. And there he sat until one of our officers gave the order ‘Fire’, and that was it…” A RAMC officer certified that McColl’s death had been instantaneous but the memory of what followed haunted Cavinder for the rest of his life: “The stretcher bearers who were deputed to put him in the hole that was already been dug in the yard; they wouldn’t do the job. They went, and so it was left to Danby and I to take him off the stretcher that he’d been put on after being unmanacled, and we lifted him into the hole. Dropped him in the hole. It was December and the yard was frost hard, icy, frosty, and… I could only get lumps of clay… we covered him, and I mimicked the parson, saying ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.’ Where was the parson?” And the men who fired the fatal shots? Cavinder observed: “None of them knew who’d shot him because five were given blank cartridges, and five were live, and they were given the rifles as they took their place… so they had no… feelings of guilt… ‘cos anyone could’ve shot him.”
Pte. McColl was executed by shooting on 28th of December 1917 at the Prison, Ypres._Member of the Court was from same unit as accused and no medical examination was made. For further details see "Gunfire" No.1 and "Shot At Dawn" (2nd edition) ps.225-226
Public Records Office, Kew File: WO 71/628. Pte. CHARLES McCOLL No: 11/81 1/4th Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment Field General Court Martial: 21.12.17 President: Maj. A. Graham 5 Bn Yorkshire Regiment Members: Capt. C.J.A. Pollock 4 Bn East Yorks; Lt. M. Morrison 5 Bn. Durham Light Infantry Courts Martial Officer: Capt. F.S.A. Baker Seaforth Highlanders
Charge: When On Active Service: Sec.12 (1) A. – Desertion Plea: Not guilty Finding: Guilty Confirmed: D.Haig 27.12.17 [Verbatim Copy of written proceedings:]
PROSECUTION: 1st Witness: No.201665 Sergt. Cavinder 4 E. Yorks sworn states: I am the accused's platoon sergeant. On 28.10.17 at 9-0 A.M. at Marsoin Farm, near Langemarck, I paraded my company & issued rum to them. I gave the accused his rum. I then warned the platoon for rifle inspection at 9-30 A.M. At 9-30 A.M. I called the platoon roll & found the accused was absent. At this parade I gave a warning. I searched for accused but could not find him but I found his equipment & rifle & steel helmet in the bivouacs where he had been living. I recognised the accused's marks on his equipment. I did not see accused again until 7.11.17. We moved off to the front line on 30/10/17 & stayed there for 24 hours, the accused was not with us.
XXd by accused: There was no mark on the steel helmet I found
By the Court: At Marsoin Farm we were in Brigade support & were living either in bivouacs or old concrete dugouts. There was very little shelling there & what there was did no damage to the camp or its occupants.
2nd Witness: No. 8796 L/Cpl. Dearing M[ilitary]. F[oot].P[olice]. sworn states:- At Calais on 1.11.17 at about 8 p.m. I was on duty in the Rue Royale when I saw the accused. He asked me to direct him to the Rest Camp. I questioned him & he said 'I am making my way home to Blighty'. I asked him for his warrant & he said 'I have been drinking & have lost it'. I arrested accused & took him to the guard room where he was detained. Accused was properly dressed in overcoat & puttees & with a F[ield].S[ervice]. cap & badge. He showed no signs of having been drinking.
Crossexamined:- Accused's first question was asking to be directed to the Rest Camp.
DEFENCE: The accused calls no witnesses. The accused states on oath:- I was brought out of the guard room before going up to the line & was in a weak condition. This was about 26.10.17. We marched up to Marsoin Farm. I had complaints brought on by shellfire. I have heart failure & nervousness. I have been with this Bn. 6 months but only reported sick once. I always shake from head to foot when we go into the trenches. I enlisted in Sep. 1914 & went to Egypt in November 1915 & came to France in April 1916. I was buried by a shell at Colin camps in Sept. 1916 with 12th E. Yorks. I was on 2 or 3 raids & then my nerves went. [Margin note| SEE B103] I was invalided home in September 1916 suffering from 'heart failure' & nervousness & was classified A3 at the finish & sent back to France without any examination. Since coming to this bn.I have tried to do my best. When I went off they dropped shells all around me & this upset me more & more & I wandered away. At Calais I was in a weak condition & gave myself up to the M.F.P. I am not fit now.I had a knock on the head from a shell in Bus Wood.
XX'd by Prosecutor: I have been in front line trenches with this bn. on about 6 different occasions. I have been here since July. The trenches I was in were at places I can't remember. One place was Bullfinch trench. I was there 8 days. Another place was Jackdaw trench. Medical evidence, tho' called for by the court, was not avail able._
After Finding:Prosecutor: Lt. & Adjutant O. Philip 4 E. Yorks. sworn: I produce accused's A.F.B.122 certified true copy (attached) not XX'd
Accused calls no witness to character. Accused makes the following statement: I come from an exempted trade - shipyard plater - to join the army voluntarily in 1914. I am the only support of my mother who is a widow. I have tried to do my best.
A.F.B. Form: No. 11/81 McColl, Charles: Coy. D: 11th (Service) Bn. East Yorkshire Regt.: Date of Enlistment 7.9.14: Date of last entry in Company Conduct Sheet 2.1.15
[Millington?] Camp: Date of Offence 23.5.15: Irregular conduct on parade (stealing eggs): Witnesses - 2nd Lt. Birch: Punishment awarded - 6 days C.C. 26.3.15
South Camp, Ripon: Date of Offence 18.7.15: Absent from Tattoo until 10.45 pm (45 minutes): Witnesses - Sergt. Cox: Punishment awarded - 3 days C.B. 19.7.15_
Ripon: Date of Offence Oct. 9: Drunk & Irregular Conduct in camp about 9.30 pm: Witnesses - Pte. Newton, Sergt. Cox: Punishment awarded - 5 days C.B. Oct. 11.
Astley Arms Camp: Date of Offence 15 May: i) When employed on Munitions Absent from 6 a.m. until apprehended by G.M.P. in Hull about 6.20 p.m. (12 hours 20 mins.) ii) Defrauding the Rly. Coy. by travelling without a ticket from Newcastle to Hull: Witnesses - L/Cpl Rendle, Pte. Palmer G.M.P.: Punishment awarded - 7 days C.B., Pay for Rly ticket. Forfeits 1 days pay. 25/5/16
Astley Arms Camp: Date of Offence 3/6/16: i) When on Active Ser vice having been warned for a draft overseas breaking from Bar racks absenting himself from Reveille to 18 o/c - 12 1/2 hours: Punishment awarded - 5 days Field Punishment No.2, forfeits 1 days pay. 5.6.16
[Overwritten: "DUPLICATE"] Withernsea: Date of Offence 24.2.17: Absent without leave (29 days): Witnesses - 2/Lt Slack, Sgt. Griffin : Punishment awarded - Forfeits all pay for 56 days 5.4.17 [Overwritten: "Sentence Expunged. Authority W.O. Letter 110 (Infantry/6917/A.G.3)"]
No.11/81 McColl, Charles: Coy. D: Corps 3rd E. Yorks R.: Date of Enlistment 7.9.14 W/Sea: Date of Offence 30.5.17: When on Active Service overstaying his pass from 10.30 p.m. until reporting to L/Cpl. Ferguson at 6.50 a.m. 1.6.17 (1 day, 8 hrs, 20 mins): Witnesses - Sgt. Griffin, L/Cpl Ferguson: Punishment awarded - Deprived 4 days Pay, 7 Days C.B. 1.6.17
On Service: Date of Offence 22/7/17: When on Active Service - deserting His Majesty's Service in that he, in the field on July 22nd 1917 absented himself from the 4th Btn. East Yorks Regt. & remained absent until apprehended at Etaples on Aug. 23rd 1917 by the Military Camp Police (Sec.12.1.A): Tried by F.G.C.M. 13.9.17 In the Field.: Finding & Sentence. Guilty - Ten Years P[enal]S[ervitude] - Confirmation & Authority "Finding Confirmed","sentence commuted to 2 years Imprisonment with]H[ard]L[abour] (sgd.) B.G.PRICE Brig. Genl. Cmdg. 150 I.B. 15-9-17._ Sentence Suspended 2-10-17 Authority III Army CM/9110 dated 3-10-17
No:11/81 Charles McColl : Coy. B: 4th East Yorkshires: Date of Enlistment 7.9.14 On Service: Date of Offence 22/9/17: When on Active Service - Deserting His Majesty's Service - in that he, in the Field, on September 1917 absented himself from his company in the front line trenches, without permission & remained absent until apprehended by No.7686 Cpl. WINTERBURN, G.H. 4th Bn. East Yorkshire Regt., at the Battalion Details Camp, about 3 miles behind the front line, on the same day. Sec.12 (1.A.): Tried by F.G.C.M. in the Field 11-10-17: Finding & Sentence - Not guilty of desertion but guilty of absence without leave - 90 days F[ield].P[unishment] No.1: Confirmation & Authority - "Finding confirmed" (sgd.) G.O.SPENCE, Lt.Col. Comdg. 150th I.B. 11/10/17
Pte. McColl was executed by shooting on 28 December 1917 at the Prison, Ypres. Capt. J.K.M. [Diehn? Dickin?] RAMC certified Death was instantaneous. Member of the Court was from same unit as accused and no medical examination was made. For further details see "Gunfire" No.1 and "Shot At Dawn" (2nd edition) ps.225-226
Dear Vanessa McColl, Many thanks for your e-mail. Since HM Government's decision to announce a conditional pardon for soldiers executed for military offences by the British Army during the First World War, I've had a number of communications from the dead men's relatives. Most have sought further information about the circumstances that culminated with the demise of their menfolk - and a few have mentioned the secrecy and shame that caused the dead man to be one of the 'disappeared'. Given that the Army's notification (a bluntly expressed letter) about the trial and execution traumatised the recipient - the families response was entirely understandable. Until Sykes and myself published the names and (mostly) correct details about the executions, compelling HM Government to release written proceedings of the capital courts-martial, many family members were under the impression that their menfolk were criminals, cowards or weaklings. As we stated - it wasn't so. The disciplinary regime exercised by the British Army during the First World War was truly draconian and I still believe that the conditional pardon does not represent an adequate acknowledgement of the disgraceful fashion in which these men were culled and the hardships endured by many relatives and dependents. The manner in which the NZ Government granted a full posthumous pardon to those NZEF soldiers who were executed and the presentation of the dead men's war medals to their families was to my mind a decidedly better response than the British government's rather mealy mouthed general conditional pardon. That said, I'll fish through my file on Charles McColl and see what further I can disinterr about his circumstances, relatives etc. - but because I'm rather busy at present you'll have to wait for a few days. If you could provide me with a postal address, I could mail you copies of whatever I discover, including a copy of the written proceedings from the UK National Archives. I don't recall anything about a 'Daily Telegraph' article but I do have a distant memory about an interview in a brief article (which I've since mislaid) that was published in one of the Hull newspapers about Charles' execution. The latter featured an indistinct photograph of Charles, kneeling on one knee.
Best Wishes, Julian Putkowski
http://www.janpieterchielens.be/shotatdawn/page25.html. (In reference to Private Charles McColl) Reading the article and others on the site has been moving, saddening and cathartic, for me and my family who have read them. Until recently I knew very very little about my father's family. I live in New Zealand, he was raised in Hull, and his family life was greatly disrupted by the effects of both the 1st and 2nd World Wars. In his twenties he travelled to NZ with the Merchant Navy, and decided to stay. Contact with family was limited in those times, and needless to say no further conversations about Wartime experiences ever occurred between him and his sisters, parents (later separated) or brothers. All I knew of my grandfather's family were a few christian names and some vague stories. My father's uncle, Charlie - simply - "died in the 1st World War". Nothing else was ever said. No-one knew his age, position in the family, what he looked like, anything about the man he was before the war experiences and of what became of him during his service, and NOTHING about the circumstances of his (murderous) death. After I told my father what I found here, he was shocked and saddened, and like me, angered by the abhorrent treatment of this man (and hundreds of other men). Then I spoke to his older brother, Alex, who lives near their child-hood home city, and I asked if he knew of the execution. He did, because he had been contacted by journalists only 5 years previously. I think it was for an article the Daily Telegraph did. However the effect was devastating to Alex McColl. He said that the shame of it had affected the family and it was not spoken of, he said that he had decided when he was told that "it would die with him". It was his intention not to pass this on to the rest of the family, as it was such a great shame. My interpretation of his experience, was that it was such a shock that he did not read the accounts fully, but had formed the opinion that (quote) " Charlie was not a good soldier" and that "there was a great deal of shame to the family". We talked more, and he revealed he had a photograph of Charlie and described him to me. I commented that the shame is on the British Army and the action was extremely unjust and savage. Our conversation was the first one he had with anyone since he found out. I told my dad what Alex had said, and he commented what a pity that his family had all been unable to discuss anything, and that his father, Neil, (Charles' brother, 5 years younger) knew very little and revealed even less. Neil had served in the Army between the wars, 1921-1928 and may have discovered the real circumstances regarding Charles' treatment at that time. After his service Neil was distant and uncommunicative to his wife and 5 children. I am reseaching my family line, and have a problem with details of the parents of Charles McColl. Perhaps in your research you discovered that information. Charles had sisters Harriet L, and Cecilia (known as Sissy), there was a brother Jack (possibly James) and my grandfather Neil. One record of Charles McColl's death states his widowed mother's name, Anna McCall of Hull. I think his father was John McCall (McColl) born maybe 1861 died 1916. It seems they moved between Glasgow and Hull, and John(?) McColl's trade as a Shipwright, meant they were port-side in their residences. The remaining family say their grandfather was born in Lismore, Argyll, Scotland. That is all they know. (or believe). If you are able to confirm any information about Chales McColl's father, I would be delighted. Thank you for writing such a comprehensive article, it was good to get a picture of the terrible event, and to read the quotes of people involved. I wonder in what form the family were advised of this execution - a visiting Army representative?, a telegram?, a letter? And I wonder what effect on the famly at the time.
Vanessa McColl 17 September 2008
Julian Putkowski
