Photography exhibition of shooting sites of shameful WW1 executions

Chloe Dewe Mathews has photographed the places where WWI soldiers faced firing squads made up of their own comrades, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

James Crozier, from Battenberg St, Belfast, is a “shirker” or “funk” in British Army parlance. It’s the name given to men (or boys in Crozier’s case, as he was only 16 when he enlisted in September 1914) who were executed for cowardice or desertion during the First World War.

Crozier fought in the Somme. In February 1916, he went missing. He was found a week later wandering around dazed behind the front line, which led to a court martial. He was sentenced to death on the morning of Sunday, 27 February 1916.