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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