War Diary Question

[trekkerdude]

Morning All,

Quick question for you, is there any reason why a court martial or execution would not be mentioned in the battalion war diary?  Or would they be mentioned in other documents (apart from the court martial documents themselves)?

Thank you

[Rockford]

Hello

It may have depended on the nature of the offence and the level of Court Martial that was required to deal with it.

Although there was scope for Courts Martial to be held 'in the field' and punishment decided by the Commanding Officer,  the more serious the offence, the more likely that the CM would take place outwith the unit and therefore it would be unlikely for the WD to refer to the details, as it would have been undertaken separate and outwith the unit's activities.

Remember too that a lot of minor offences were dealt with without a CM via rules of military discipline.

The service papers of the individual (where these survive) are likely to make reference to the outcome of the CM, if not to the details of the CM itself.

The Long, Long Trail site provides other information here:

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/military-crimes-1914-1918-british-army/

Best wishes

Rockford

[trekkerdude]

Thank you for your quick response.

It was a Field General Court Martial ending in the execution of the individual (for murder).

It just seemed odd that it wouldn't be mentioned at all nor as far as I can see is there any mention of the individual who he murdered.

[jim1]

War diaries were there to record the day to day activities of the Btn.
Any additional information was left to the discretion of the CO.
Some gave just the basics while others gave a more comprehensive account.
I do recall one such incident where a soldier was accused of killing a local farmer.
The CO. organised an ID parade & the offender was picked out by the wife & daughter.
This was mentioned in the diary.
The outcome or the man's name wasn't included.

[Crumblie]

In a lot of war diaries unless you were an officer you would not be mentioned, you were basically just a nobody.