Lives of the First World War

known 2nd November 1916

Private Bernard McGeehan, of the Liverpool King's Regiment, was executed on 2 November 1916, after being found guilty of desertion. Aged 28 and from Derry, Northern Ireland, he had been transferred to the front line just after the Battle of the Somme earlier that year. His second cousin, John McGeehan, is a member of the Shot at Dawn campaign group. He said: "They suffered from the endless onslaught of the German shell-fire and merciless machine-gunning and Bernard cracked. "He couldn't cope. He was shell-shocked completely, shaking, bewildered and lost. "He went for a walk one day out of his lines and five days later walked back in again, looking for his regiment. "He was arrested, court martialled and shot at dawn - for alleged desertion. "I've always contended that anybody who walks back into his lines again is not planning to desert."

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