A troop of starlings rummage in a patch of dog violets, battling for the best grubs. There’s a skirmish before some retreat to an ivy-shrouded crypt, while a robin flits between gravestones calling a bugle-esque song, declaring this territory won.
St Edmund and St Mary’s church sits in the centre of the rural village of Ingatestone. Tucked down the side of the churchyard is a first world war memorial. The obelisk itself is nothing unusual, but one name, tucked unassumingly into the roll call, sets it apart. Pte Archibald Browne, who lived locally, was 26 when he was tied to a post, blindfolded and shot, at 4.30am on 19 December 1914.
Browne was one of 306 men who were executed during the war for the supposed crimes of desertion, cowardice, falling asleep at post and throwing down arms. Browne went missing on duty and was caught. A brigadier recommended execution to make a “serious example” of him. Thousands were convicted of military crimes but given reduced sentences – Browne was unlucky.
Some of the 306 suffered from shellshock (post-traumatic stress disorder) and had undergone treatment. Doctors understood the condition, but it wasn’t enough to garner sympathy. Others were young. Herbert Burden was only 17 when he was branded a coward and shot. Executions were carried out during the early hours; at this time of year, the volley of shots would cut through a dawn chorus.
Often, men from the prisoner’s own battalion – who had fought alongside him just days before – carried out the punishment. Some were sick, others cried, many claimed to point their gun away, not wanting to deliver the fatal shot, and survivors reported having never reconciled themselves with being part of a firing squad.
The 306 were collectively pardoned in 2006, and a few, like Browne, have their names etched alongside those who fell in battle. Most have yet to be given the same honour.
In this tranquil springtime scene, blossom falls from the nearby cherry trees on to the path. I spy among it a white feather, and place it on the memorial. One hundred and ten years ago, these men would have found the gesture offensive, an accusation of cowardice. But I mean it as an offering of peace to all those who gave their lives in the first world war. Every single one.
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