8 SEPTEMBER
FIRST OF 306 FIRST WORLD WAR EXECUTIONS FOR DESERTION.
[ 8 September 1914 ] [ relevance ? ]
On this day in 1914, the First World War was barely a month old and the first British soldier to be found guilty of desertion was executed. Thomas Highgate was just 19 years old when he was shot at sunrise in front of soldiers of the Dorset and Cheshire regiments. Until this day no one knows where he was buried. There were to be another 305 executions of British soldiers for desertion before the war ended four years later.