1918: Private Harry James Knight, deserter
October 6th, 2015 Headsman
“Owing to the state of my nerves, I find that I cannot carry on as I should. I’ve tried my best all through but four years has been a little too much.”
-British Private Harry James Knight of the The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment 1st Battalion — shot as a deserter on October 6, 1918, five weeks before the armistice.
In honor of the 90th anniversary year of the war’s end back in 2008, the National Archives produced a podcast series titled “Voices of the Armistice”. The episode “Court Martial” dramatizes Knight’s fate via readings of archive records, and can be found here.
On this day..
- 1750: Maria Pauer, the last witch executed in Austria - 2019
- 1909: Martha Rendell - 2018
- 1884: Thomas Orrock and Thomas Harris - 2017
- 1893: Paulino Pallas, Spanish anarchist - 2016
- 1573: Maeykens Wens, Antwerp Anabaptist - 2015
- 1922: Benny Swim, "dead as a door-nail" (or not) - 2014
- 1943: Yitskhok Rudahevski and family - 2013
- 1646: Zhu Yujian, the Prince of Tang - 2012
- 1999: Chen Chin-hsing, Taiwan's most notorious criminal - 2011
- 1553: Prince Mustafa, heir to Suleiman the Magnificent - 2010
- 1536: William Tyndale, English Bible translator - 2009
- 1849: Lajos Batthyány and the 13 Martyrs of Arad - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Desertion,England,Execution,France,History,Military Crimes,Shot,Soldiers,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1910s, 1918, harry knight, october 6, world war i
