The Life and Death of Private Harry Farr
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The RUSI Journal ISSN: 0307-1847 (Print) 1744-0378 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rusi20 The life and death of Private Harry Farr Professor Simon Wessely To cite this article: Professor Simon Wessely (2006) The life and death of Private Harry Farr, The RUSI Journal, 151:5, 60-64, DOI: 10.1080/03071840608522876 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03071840608522876 Published online: 10 Jun 2008. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 47 Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rusi20 Special Feature: Shot at Dawn Pardons The Life and Death of Private Harry Farr Simon Wessely Professor Simon Wessely is Co- This summer Secretary of State for physical injury - the Court Martial Director of the King's Centre for Defence Des Browne decided that he papers are unclear on this point. Later Military" Health Research, part of would no longer contest the ongoing that night Farr was found still in the King's College London. He is also judicial review of the decision of a rear, and was again ordered to go to Honorary Civilian Advisor in series of his predecessors to refuse to the trenches. He refused, telling the Psychiatry for the British Army. He grant a pardon to Private Harry Farr, Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM), gave evidence in the Judicial Review of shot at dawn for cowardice on 16 Haking, that he 'could not stand it'. the case of Private Farr on behalf of October 1916. At the same time, he The RSM replied: the Ministry of Defence. This article is announced he was seeking drawn from a paper first published in parliamentary approval to offer a You are a fucking coward and you the Journal of the Royal Society of statutory pardon not just to Private will go to the trenches. I give luck Medicine (Vo199, September 2006). It Farr, but all those executed for all ~.or my life and I give/.uck all/or is reproduced with some amendments military offences during the First yours and I'll get you /.ucking well by kind permission of the Royal World War. The media coverage of Des shot. Society of Medicine. Browne's decision confirmed that most people were pleased by the At 11.00 pm that night a final decision, and feel that justice has at attempt was made to get Private Farr long last been done. As one up to the front line, and he was newspaper observed, those 'dry as escorted forward. A fracas broke out dust' historians who expressed doubts between Farr and his escorts, and this about the decision were clearly out of time they let him run away. The touch with modern feeling. Either following morning he was arrested way, it is now dear that a pardon will and charged with contravening section be granted, and thus it is timely to 4 (7) of the Army Act - showing step back and review what we know cowardice in the face of the enemy. about the life and death of Private Farr. For the military, it was Background probably an 'open and There is little dispute about the sequence of events on 17 September shut" case. The evidence 1916 that led to the execution of against Private Farr was Private Farr. Harry Farr was a member of I st Battalion West Yorkshire overwhelming Regiment, who were taking part in the Battle of the Somme. That day his The Field General Court Martial battalion was moving from their rear (FGCM) took place two weeks later. positions up to the front line itself. At Four soldiers gave evidence against 9.00 am that morning Farr asked for Farr, confirming the genera[ sequence permission to fall out, saying he was of events, which Farr did not deny. not we[[. He was sent to see the Farr was not represented by a so- Medical Officer (MO), who either called 'Prisoner's Friend' (this was not found nothing wrong with him, or unusual), but spoke in his own refused to see him because he had no defence. He was asked by the RUSI JOURNAL OCTOBER 2006 President of the Court whether he had the opportunity to report sick between the night of the offence and now, and Farr replied that he had indeed had the opportunity but had not done so. Why, asked the President, and Farr replied, almost certainly unwisely for his future, that this was because 'being away from the shell fire I felt better'. The Court then heard about his disciplinary record, which apart from a brief period of going AWOL in 1914 had been exemplary, and his medical history. Private Farr had spent several months in a rear hospital in 1915 with a diagnosis of shell shock, had been treated by the MO with the same diagnosis in April 1916, and again for one day in July 1916. Unfortunately the MO who had treated Farr was not able to give evidence, having been subsequently severely wounded. Despite intense searching, we have no other information about Farr's medical history, since the records were almost certainly lost when the Public Records Office was bombed in 1940. The Court Martial lasted less than Private Harry Farr an hour. For the military, it was probably an 'open and shut' case. The understand why this was we need Haig had reason to be worried. By evidence against Private Farr was first to consider the military 1916 most of the regular army, the overwhelming. He had absented background to Farr's offence. 'Old Contemptib[es', had gone. In himself from duty on several their place came the citizen army, the occasions, despite being told Haig's Thinking Kitchener Army, which would in turn forcefully the consequence of his What was going through Haig's mind be followed by the conscripts of actions. The events took place 'in the when he signed Private Farr's death 1917. For regulars such as Haig these face of the enemy'. He was found warrant? To answer that we must be were viewed with suspicion. They guilty, and sentenced to death. careful not to read history backwards. were not lacking in patriotism or Despite receiving the death By 1916 there were [arge issues that morale, but they were not proper sentence, Harry could still have preyed on the minds of the senior soldiers. They had no professional comforted himself that he was British commanders. It was not a military training, or previous service. unlikely to be executed, since he foregone conclusion that the British No one knew how the mass citizen would have known that most of those Army wou[d be able to continue to armies would withstand the new and who received a capital sentence from withstand the strain of the Western terrible environment of industrialized a Court Martial were soon reprieved. ~ Front. Only a few months later the warfare. Haig and his colleagues were Private Farr was charged with French Army would mutiny, and constantly on the alert for signs of a cowardice. There were 551 Courts remain para[ysed for most of 1917. reducing of morale, or a worsening of Martial for cowardice that resulted in The Italians collapsed at Caporetto, discipline, that might precede a a guilty verdict, but only 18 (3.3 per and the Russian armies disintegrated catastrophic collapse or mutiny. cent) executions. No execution could in the same year. In fact the British Haig, like all his colleagues, take place until it had been confirmed Army did withstand the almost believed that the main reason that by the Commander in Chief (France), unimaginable strain, and in 1918 his men fought was because of their Sir Douglas Haig, and in nine out of would win what many historians patriotism, sense of duty, leadership, ten occasions he did not. Yet Farr was claim to be its finest feat of arms, but and local esprit de corps. But if those one of the unlucky ones, and to that was sti[[ to come. were the carrots, there was also no 61 dissention from the view that knowledge that the battalion was to Nothing was said at the Court Martial occasionally the stick was needed as go into action the following dawn. As about what had happened to the well. If it was to endure, the new indeed it did. And it would be battalion in the hours after Farr's Army required a stern system of common knowledge that this would desertion, but nothing would have discipline much as applied to the pre- be costly. As indeed it was. The needed to have been said. Everyone war regulars. The Regular army was battalion lost 150 casualties out of a knew. There were and are expected to set the example - and total of 600. So Private Farr's refusal considerable differences in military Private Farr, as a regular, would be to go to the trenches on the night of honour and codes of behaviour judged by those standards. 17 September would have been between 'scrimshanking' - breaking Yet even in the testing years of interpreted by his comrades, NCOs the rules, stealing better provisions, 1916 and 1917 it remained the case and officers in the light of the avoiding onerous duties, missing out that despite all the pressures, Haig forthcoming action. The four on parades and so on - and letting still showed clemency to the vast sergeants and privates who gave your mates down and leaving them in majority of those sentenced to death evidence against Farr all took part in danger alone.