Executed

The gravestone of Herbert Morris, a black war-volunteer, executed by his own troops.

Morris enlisted in Jamaica when he was 16 years old. He was shipped to the battlefields in Flanders and there, according to his superiors, he 'behaved well'. A year later, building parapets around heavy guns which were firing continuously, his nerves broke down. He ran for two days. Then he was arrested.
He was sentenced to be 'shot at dawn', because of 'desertion from active service near the frontline'. Herbert Morris was shot, in a coal-shed in the village of Poperinge, on 20 September 1917. He had just turned 17.


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