The Story from APM

Shell Shock

Friday, November 10 2006

SHELL SHOCK

Tomorrow is Veterans Day in the U.S. and Armistice Day in England. This day pays tribute to the sacrifices of war-time soldiers, and was first held after World War I.  It's difficult today to understand the carnage of World War I, and how different it was from wars preceding it.  At the front lines, soldiers were subjected to unprecedented artillery barrages that drove many of them mad.  At the time, these young men were considered cowards, and they were shot for treason.  

Today, however, their "shell shock" has a name - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In the fall of 1914, Private Harry Farr went off to war, leaving his young wife and infant daughter behind in London.  During the next year and a half, he was hospitalized four times for shell shock -- once for five months -- but each time he was sent back to the front. 

It was in September 1916, during the battle of the Somme, that Harry reached his limit.  Assigned to take supplies to the front with a ration party, he refused to go.  After a twenty-minute court martial, he was found guilty of cowardice and executed the next day at dawn.

For decades, Harry's ashamed wife told no one about his sentence.  Harry's father would not allow his son's name to be spoken in the family.   Harry's daughter, Gertrude Harris, learned the truth by accident when she was forty years old. 

Yesterday, November 9, 2006, the Queen of England officially pardoned Harry Farr and 305 men who were also executed for cowardice.

Dick speaks with Harry's ninety-two year old daughter and sixty three-year old granddaughter about their battle to win Harry's pardon.   

Today's program features music composed by Benjamin Britten to honor four of his friends who were killed in the First World War.

War Req, Op 66, Requiem aeternam, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra for the album Britten: War Requiem (Original Recording Remastered)

War Req, Op 66: XI Domine Jesu Christe by the Highgate School Boy’s Choir and the London Symphony for the album Britten: War Requiem (Original Recording Remastered)

• Read Harry Farr's story
• Find out more about the "Shot at Dawn" campaign
• Read stories of other soldiers who also received pardons
• Find out more about the First World War

Add to Story