SHOT AT DAWN

The trial and execution of Private Bernard McGeehan

1/8 (Irish) Bn. King's Liverpool Regiment

Private Bernard McGeehan was executed at Poperinge at 6.16 a.m. on 2 November 1916. The firing squad was commanded by the Assistant Provost Marshal, 55 Division and Captain G.A. Berkley-Cole, RAMC verified  that McGeehan had been instantly killed. Originally from Northern Ireland, McGeehan had been serving with the 1/8 (Irish) Bn. King's Liverpool Regiment. He arrived in France with his unit on 3 May 1915 and had managed to survive, even when over half his battalion became casualties in an assault on Guillemont in August 1916.

For some unspecified reason McGeehan had been in the guardroom on 17 September 1916 but was released to rejoin his company, then bivouacked near Mametz. They were all ordered to return with the battalion to the trenches on 20 September but when they marched away McGeehan was nowhere to be found. The last person to see him had been Corporal Cooke, who had allocated a sleeping space to McGeehan at about 6 p.m. on 19 September. He remained missing until 5 p.m. on 25 September when he went up to Sergeant Law, Royal Engineers, who was on duty near Montreuil. Law noticed that the Private had neither a rifle nor equipment. He later explained, McGeehan:"Came to me and asked for something to eat and drink as he had had nothing for 3 days. I asked where he came from and he said the Somme. I asked where he was going to. He said to join his regiment in Boulogne. I said I had nothing to eat there, but I could show him a place for both. I took him to the APM's office Montreuil and handed him over to the Sergeant."Interrogated at the Assistant Provost Marshal's Office, McGeehan stated that he had come from "Ginchy" and that he had been walking for a week. According to his interrogator, McGeehan said that he had got lost, "Coming out of the trenches." Asked about how he evaded being intercepted by military police checkpoints, McGeehan was alleged to have replied, "I dodged them."

On 28 September, McGeehan was escorted back to his unit, which had moved to Brandhoek. He was locked up in the guardroom, charged with desertion and after three weeks, court martialled. The President of the court was Major J.C. Wolff, Royal Field Artillery. The members were Captains H. Huthwaite and O.C. Cockerill, both of 1/4 Bn. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Captain B.W. Bentinck, 13 Bn. Rifle Brigade was present in his capacity as Court Martial Officer. McGeehan insisted he was not guilty of desertion. Given what was to emerge about the soldier's character during the latter part of his trial and subsequently, the failure of the court to secure an officer to assist McGeehan's defence reduced the proceedings to a shoddy exercise in judicial murder.

The verbatim handwritten account of the trial was recorded on two pages of  unlined paper. The entire case for the defence was over in a few minutes:"Accused on oath: Ever since I joined, all the men have made fun of me, and I didn't know what I was doing when I went away. Every time I go in the trenches they throw stones at me and pretend it is shrapnel, and they call me all sorts of names. I have been out here 18 months and had no leave."

The secret of his unscathed survival then emerged when McGeehan explained that he had been on duty with the battalion transport until two months prior to his disappearence. When the court examined McGeehan's previous disciplinary record they found he had only committed two minor offences. On 14 July 1915 he had been absent from duty and was sentenced to three days' Field Punishment No.2. On 23 March 1916, for neglecting to obey an order and losing some saddlery, he was punished with two weeks' Field Punishment No.1 and fined 10/-.A junior officer from McGeehan's battalion finally gave evidence about the soldier's character. Second Lieutenant McCabe informed the court:"I knew the accused before he joined the battalion. He used to be in the Londonderry Post Office as Telegraph Messenger about 15 years ago. I next saw him when he enlisted. He was with the transport. There was nothing against him at any time, except he was inclined to be rather stupid."

The reason why McGeehan had been detailed to remain with the battalion transport emerged after the court had found him guilty and sentenced to death. His battalion Commanding Officer, Lt. Colonel H. Leech, condemned him in a memorandum dated 20 October 1916: "This man was employed in Transport Section for some time, afterwards being returned to his Coy. as useless. In the trenches he was afraid and  appeared incapable of understanding orders. Service with the B.E.F. over 17 months. My opinion of this soldier is that he committed the crime deliberately with intent to avoid the particular service involved. He seems of weak intellect and is worthless as a soldier."

Because of the social and institutional chasm which existed between battalion commanders and a battalion's rank and file, Leech's view of McGeehan could not have been based on more than very limited personal contact with the soldier. It was more likely to have been conjured up from the officer's scrutiny of the text of the court martial proceedings, supplemented with anecdotal remarks from more junior officers and possibly NCO's.

That said, it is well nigh inconceivable that the Brigadier General Clifton Stockwell, commanding 164 Brigade, had any direct knowledge whatsoever of the soldier. Yet the brigadier general's confirmation stated:"The Character of the accused from a fighting point of view is indifferent. His general behaviour is good. The state of discipline of his battalion is good except with regard to crimes of desertion in which respect it is bad. The opinion of the Commanding Officer is attached - I concur in his opinion that the crime was deliberately committed with intent to avoid going into battle. I recommend that the sentence be carried out in view of the above reasons."

Brigadier General Francis Duncan, temporarily in the command of the 55 Division, was more economical, "I recommend that the Death Sentence be carried out as I consider that the accused deliberately left his battalion in order to avoid going into action." Lieutenant General Aylmer Haldane, General Plumer and Field Marshal Haig all agreed with Duncan that McGeehan had to be executed. McGeehan was executed because the confirming officers felt he had no further military utility as a fighting man, other than as a source of grisly propaganda with which to intimidate his fellow soldiers. The officers who sentenced him to death gave no thought to the evidence that McGeehan's nervousness might have been made worse by the bullying. Nor did it ever occur to the officers who purported to claim great familiarity with McGeehan's purportedly innate weakness in combat, that the soldier could have been a military asset if he had been drafted to serve in a non-fighting capacity. Those who condemned McGeehan to an untimely death are themselves thereby condemned. Their callous, compassionless and unimaginative behaviour toward McGeehan provides further ammunition for critics who insist that senior British officers' had neither sympathy nor understanding about the plight of the rank and file during the First World War.

© Julian  Putkowski 21.12.1999

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