217789 Pte. W. B. Nelson British Army 14th Btn. Durham Light Infantry (d.11th Aug 1916) Billy Nelson served with the Durham Light Infantry 14th Battalion. He was executed for desertion on 11th August 1916 aged 19 and is buried in Acheux British Cemetery in Acheux.
Pte. Nelson was shot at dawn on 11th August 1916 after he "deliberately absented himself, with the sole object of avoiding duty in the trenches". Although he had absconded three times before - because of serious family problems - when he was arrested he had gone to the canteen to eat his first meal in days because he had been on restricted rations while carrying out his punishment for stealing an officer's puttees. One of his superiors said: "This is a bad case of deliberate desertion to avoid duty in the trenches by an old offender. Pte Nelson is not a good fighting soldier. I recommend that the sentence of death be carried out ... If [it] is commuted ... it will encourage others."
Billy was executed after 11 months in the trenches only days after being wounded in the bloody Battle of Loos.
The soldier's crime was to miss his unit going over the top because he was having his first meal for days, with permission, in another part of the battlefield
His father, also a soldier, had recently been captured.
Billy's trial lasted only five minutes. With no one to represent him, he said: "I have had a lot of trouble at home and my nerves are badly upset. My father is a prisoner in Germany and is losing his eyesight there through bad treatment.
My mother died while I was still in England, leaving my sister aged 13 and my brother aged 10. I am the only one left. I had to leave them in the charge of a neighbour. I had no intention of deserting."
But his story didn't impress his superiors, who ordered him to be shot as an example to others. Billy's death warrant describes him as being "of no more military use".
Billy's great-niece, Nora High, 80, of Seaham, Co Durham, who campaigned for a pardon, says: "He was shell-shocked, his nerves got the better of him and he was thinking of his family. I want people to remember he fought bravely for 11 months before breaking down.
I'm very angry and annoyed and I won't rest until he is pardoned. We have a prayer book and a button from his coat and that is all we have left of him but we will make sure he is never forgotten.
There should be a statue in London of the soldiers who were shot at dawn rather than the one of General Haig."
|