Honour these executed men

IN 1990, the Public Records Office released the files of the young men (some of them boys of no more than 16 or 17 years of age) executed by the British Army for desertion and allied breaches of military discipline in the First World War.

Since then, the campaign for pardons for 306 of these young men (the Shot at Dawn campaign) has gathered momentum.

It has done so in the face of official opposition and obstruction that in some disturbing respects has mirrored the original acts of injustice.