17-year-old British soldier Private Herbert Burden blindfolded and tied to a stake
‘Shot at Dawn’ This memorial in Staffordshire is dedicated to the 306 British and commonwealth servicemen who were executed during the Great War. It portrays 17-year-old British soldier Private Herbert Burden blindfolded and tied to a stake, a disc pinned over his heart, waiting to be shot by a firing squad. Burden, who falsified his age to enlist, had been Absent-without-Leave multiple times. When he left his post again, he was arrested and accused of desertion. Found guilty, a firing squad executed him two days later. Eighty years on, grieved relatives petitioned the British government to correct these perceived injustices. In Burden’s case, research revealed that he had suffered under severe shelling, witnessed his friends killed battle, and had been sent to a military hospital. In response to the groundswell movement, British artist Andy DeComyn created the memorial in 2000 and gifted to the relatives of the executed soldiers. The execution of confused and sh...