Shot at Dawn Pardons The Life and Death of Private Harry Farr
Oct 2006, Vol. 151, No. 5
By Simon Wessely
In the summer of 2006, Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne decided that he would no longer contest the ongoing judicial review of the decision of a series of his predecessors to refuse to grant a pardon to Private Harry Farr, shot at dawn for cowardice on 16 October 1916. At the same time, he announced he was seeking parliamentary approval to offer a statutory pardon not just to Private Farr, but all those executed for military offences during the First World War. The media coverage of Des Browne’s decision confirmed that most people were pleased by the decision, and feel that justice has at long last been done. As one newspaper observed, those ‘dry as dust’ historians who expressed doubts about the decision were clearly out of touch with modern feeling. Either way, it is now clear that a pardon will be granted, and thus it is timely to step back and review what we know about the life and death of Private Farr.
Professor Simon Wessely is Co-Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, part of King’s College London. He is also Honorary Civilian Advisor in Psychiatry for the British Army. He gave evidence in the Judicial Review of the case of Private Farr on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. This article is drawn from a paper first published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (Vol 99, September 2006).It is reproduced with some amendments by kind permission of the Royal Society of Medicine.
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By Simon Wessely
In the summer of 2006, Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne decided that he would no longer contest the ongoing judicial review of the decision of a series of his predecessors to refuse to grant a pardon to Private Harry Farr, shot at dawn for cowardice on 16 October 1916. At the same time, he announced he was seeking parliamentary approval to offer a statutory pardon not just to Private Farr, but all those executed for military offences during the First World War. The media coverage of Des Browne’s decision confirmed that most people were pleased by the decision, and feel that justice has at long last been done. As one newspaper observed, those ‘dry as dust’ historians who expressed doubts about the decision were clearly out of touch with modern feeling. Either way, it is now clear that a pardon will be granted, and thus it is timely to step back and review what we know about the life and death of Private Farr.
Professor Simon Wessely is Co-Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, part of King’s College London. He is also Honorary Civilian Advisor in Psychiatry for the British Army. He gave evidence in the Judicial Review of the case of Private Farr on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. This article is drawn from a paper first published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (Vol 99, September 2006).It is reproduced with some amendments by kind permission of the Royal Society of Medicine.
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