Introduction

 

An account of desertion during World War One on the home front in the UK is available as a book by Andrea Hetherington.   The book provides backgound reading to place the case studies provided here in their social, economic, political and historical context.

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Deserters-of-the-First-World-War-Paperback/p/23200

Also, Andrea provided an account of the story of desertion on the home front in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dK8wIGRXqU&t=5s

Thanks to Julian Putkowski for his advice and for pointing me in the right direction.

A list of about 100 deserters from the Forest of Dean during the First World War is provided in the table below following this introduction to the topic.

Introduction

Desertion was a small strike against the monotony of the military machine, a brief holiday from routine. It was a tactic for a man to negotiate or manoeuvre his way through a war which was mostly beyond his immediate control and it was a tactic utilised by many thousands of men.[1]

Andrea Hetherington

During the First World War, desertion and absence without leave became increasingly common. Many volunteers reconsidered their decision to enlist once they realised they would be exposed to the horrors of trench warfare or when they returned home on leave, having experienced the brutal realities of the war. When conscription was introduced in 1916, thousands of men were compelled to fight. As a result, it was unsurprising that some chose to desert or ignore their call-up papers altogether.

Most of these men were captured or returned to their units voluntarily and served the majority of their time in the military with distinction. Some were involved in acts of bravery while fighting on the front line and others were wounded or killed.

Among these men were a considerable number from the Forest of Dean. So far, this study has identified around 100 men from the Forest who deserted or went absent from the army and navy during the First World War.

Under military law, a distinction was made between desertion and absence without leave based on the soldier’s intention. Desertion occurs when a person abandons their duty or post without permission with the intention of not returning to their unit. In contrast, absence without leave refers to a temporary absence without permission, but with the intention of returning to their unit.

Andrea Hetherington, in her book Deserters of the First World War, argues that desertion and absenteeism while at home were an everyday part of military life, were far more widespread than might be imagined and were also culturally accepted.  She challenges the standpoint of some historians that the army was held together by deference and the willingness of soldiers to obey orders. She argues:

This deference is overstated. There were huge numbers of trade-union men in the armed forces and they did protest when conditions were deemed unacceptable. Demonstrations of disobedience took place on a large scale at various stages of the war, from the early stages of training to the demobilisation process. Sometimes this was a group action and sometimes it was an individual act. Deference was conditional: where an implied contract was breached, men withdrew their labour.[2]

Desertion was just one category of many acts of defiance. War-weariness and disillusionment in the British army manifested themselves in many other ways, including conscientious objection, insubordination, live-and-let-live, strikes, and mutinies.[3] The “live and let live” system was an unofficial arrangement, common during the First World War, where opposing troops developed informal agreements to avoid shooting at specific times to eat, collect the dead, or repair trenches.

The focus of this discussion will be on the majority of men who deserted from the home front and were subject to military law. However, there were a few sailors from the Forest who deserted from the navy during World War 1, and their treatment was slightly different under the King’s Regulations and Admiralty Instructions produced by the Admiralty.

The following case studies on this website track the life stories of some of these Forest men who deserted and seek to understand the reasons for their actions, how they survived and the consequences for themselves and their families.

Shot at Dawn

In their book Shot at Dawn, Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes describe one of the most shameful and inglorious episodes in all British history: the executions by firing squad of 346 members of the British and Empire forces during the First World War. 266 were shot for desertion itself, the remaining 43 were shot for other military offences, including cowardice and mutiny.[4] Most of the men executed for desertion were caught while avoiding active service abroad. However, the death penalty exists for deserters, whether they had walked away from a trench in France or from a parade ground at home, as a designation of being on active service applied to both.  Fourteen of the shot at dawn contingent were actually arrested in Britain, taken back across the channel, where they were court-martialled and shot.

Putkowski and Sykes demonstrate the ineptness, ignorance and unfairness of the British court martial system at the time, and how frequently condemned men were proved to have been formerly brave soldiers who had simply cracked under the pressure of trench warfare. These men were judicially killed as a lesson to other soldiers who, it was thought, might themselves crack or choose to desert. In the event, many of the victims went to their deaths with unbelievable courage and dignity, as eye-witness accounts in their book show.

The warning the military made by executing these men probably prevented thousands of men from deserting. However, despite this, those executed represented a very small minority of men who decided to desert or go absent without leave. As the horrors of trench warfare took their toll, increasing numbers of men took the risk of execution and walked away from active service.  Between August 1914 and March 1920, about 300,000 men were convicted of court-martial offences, including nearly 127,000 for desertion or absenteeism.[5]

Convictions by a court-martial for desertion or absenteeism (August 1914 and March 1920).[6]

Offence	Total	Abroad	Home
Desertion	38,630	7,361	31,269
Absenteeism	81,188	37,034	51,154
Total	126, 818	44,395	82, 423

According to these statistics, during the war, the overall desertion rate was about 1 in 100 men and the biggest group was those deserting or going absent while at home.   However, in reality, the figure was much higher because not all the men deserting or going absent were court-martialled. This was because not all deserters were captured, and when they were, many cases were handled informally and resulted in lighter punishments from their commanding officers, meaning these cases are not reflected in the official figures. In addition, if a deserter signed a confession, then there was no need for a court-martial.

Motivations

Desertion began almost immediately after the declaration of war, often due to the poor conditions in the training camps. Recruitment had far outpaced the military’s ability to properly house, equip, and supply the new soldiers, forcing many to live in tents. Food was inadequate, uniforms were lacking, and proper weapons were scarce. Constant wet weather turned camps into muddy, unsanitary environments, leading to outbreaks of disease such as measles and viral meningitis. Over 100,000 men became ill enough to require hospital treatment in Britain in the autumn and winter of 1914/15, and more than 700 died.[7] This harsh reality was far removed from what many had expected, prompting some recruits to abandon their posts and return home.

As the war progressed, men began to desert for a whole variety of reasons. However, for each individual, it was often unclear what the primary motivation was to take this step.

• Some may have been unaware of the seriousness of their actions and just wanted to extend their home leave to spend more time with their families. Perhaps they wanted to see a newborn child, stay home for a while after getting married, support a sick relative or attend a funeral.

• Others would have been so traumatised by their experience at the front and, possibly suffering from shell shock, could not face the thought of returning and facing more death and violence.

• Some may have felt marginalised by society, and so did not want to die in a war which they thought had nothing to do with them.

• Many soldiers had addiction problems with alcohol and mental health issues and struggled to cope with going for long periods without a drink or the support of family and community.

• Others had a history of conflict with the authorities as trade unionists or political activists and, often holding them in contempt, did not want to accept their orders from upper-class officers.

• Some already had a history of criminality and imprisonment, and were well practised in deceiving the authorities, and found a better alternative to war by drifting into crime while escaping on the run.

• After the declaration of the Armistice, many did not want to wait months to be formally demobilised, so they just left their camps and headed home.

However, in general, desertion and absenteeism were often an expression of a much wider anti-war sentiment, reflecting increasing war weariness as casualties mounted and opposition to the war grew.

Military Discipline

Military discipline during the First World War was harsh. In cases of minor infractions, a non-commissioned officer could order a soldier to perform unpleasant tasks, such as cleaning the latrines, or to attend extra parades.

If the offence was considered more severe, a soldier would have to appear before a company commander. In this case, a fine could be imposed or the soldier confined to barracks with fatigue duties, square bashing, or pack drills and loss of pay.  If the offence was even more serious, the soldier had to appear before a commanding officer who could award him a sentence in a detention (military prison) or a Field Punishment for up to twenty-eight days. During the First World War, civilian prisons were sometimes converted for use as detention barracks.

Field punishment was introduced in 1881 following the abolition of flogging. It was a common punishment during the First World War. A commanding officer could award a Field Punishment for up to 28 days. Field punishments were a brutalising experience designed to humiliate the victim. The punishments involved forced and heavy labour while being continually harassed by NCOs and performing everything “at the double”, loss of pay, no cigarettes and a restricted diet. On having completed a sentence, a further spell could be awarded sequentially.

Field punishment No 1 also consisted of the convicted man being placed in fetters and handcuffs or similar restraints and attached to a fixed object, such as a gun wheel or a fence post, for up to two hours per day. It was brutally refined by the personnel responsible for inflicting the punishment and came to be known as the crucifixion. Field Punishment Number 2 involved the brutalising experience described in the above paragraph, but did not involve the use of crucifixion. 

Court Martial

The final sanction for military offences was the court-martial. There were four types of court-martial. Only two of them, the general court martial and the field general court martial, were invested with the authority to sanction the death penalty. The district court martial could only impose a maximum sentence of two years in prison, and the regimental court martial tried less serious offences.

In all, between August 1914 and March 1920, 5,952 officers and 298,310 other ranks were court-martialled during the war. This amounts to just over 3% of the total number of men who joined the army. Of those tried, 89% were convicted; 8% acquitted; the rest were either convicted without the conviction being confirmed or with it being subsequently quashed. [8]

Of those convicted, 30% were for absence without leave; 15% for drunkenness; 14% for desertion (although only 3% were actually in the field at the time); 11% for insubordination; 11% for loss of army property, and the remaining 19% for various other crimes. The main punishments applied were: 3 months detention in a military prison, 24%; Field Punishment Number 1, 22%; Fines, 12%; 6 months detention, 10%; reduction in rank, 10% and Field Punishment Number 2, 8%.[9]

There were almost 138,000 district court martials on the home front for various offences compared to just over 3000 general court martials.[10] Most punishments varied from confinement to barracks or a period in military detention with loss of pay, or alternatively, Field Punishments for up to ninety days with loss of pay.[11]

The most common sentence for offences committed at home was military detention under very harsh conditions. During the First World War, just over a hundred thousand such sentences were handed down.[12] Sentences were reviewed by senior officers and were often reduced or remitted in order to return men to service more quickly.

During the First World War, under the provisions of the Army Act, some offences were punishable more severely if the soldier was on active service abroad.  Execution by firing squad was reserved for desertion, theft, sleeping while on duty or hitting a senior officer. 3,000 men were ordered to be put to death during the war, and as we have seen of these, 309 were executed.[13]

Desertion and Absenteeism

Desertion was an offence under section 154 of the Army Act, 1881, for regular soldiers or section 15 of the Reserve Forces Act, 1882, for Territorials and later for men who had been transferred to the Army Reserves under the Military Service Act, 1916.

Both desertion and absenteeism could be tried by court-martial. A person charged with desertion could be found guilty of desertion, attempting to desert or being absent without leave. Likewise, a person charged with attempting to desert could be found guilty of desertion or being absent without leave.

A soldier arrested for desertion on the home front was most likely to appear before a district court martial, where the maximum punishment was two years’ military detention. In more serious cases, they had to go before a general court-martial where the punishments could be harsher and included the death penalty.

A much larger group of men than deserters were the absentees, who often failed to return to barracks after being on home leave. Some of these men were simply quickly arrested and sent back to their military unit and did not face a court-martial, so they do not appear on court-martial records.

Punishments for absenteeism were lighter than those for desertion and there was no death penalty for being absent without leave. A soldier convicted of desertion would have all his previous service wiped out. This could have severe consequences for a regular army soldier with a long service record. This was another vital distinction between the punishment for desertion and absenteeism.

A conviction of desertion could impact a soldier’s or his widow’s pension. First World War pensions for British soldiers were granted for disability or for widows. Pensions were based on the percentage of disability or rank, often requiring proof that conditions were caused or aggravated by military service.

Absentees were far less likely to face court-martial because company commanders had summary disciplinary powers that allowed them to impose a variety of punishments without resorting to imprisonment. Under these powers, an absentee could receive up to 28 days’ detention.  Short sentences of up to seven days would normally be served in the barracks, but longer sentences would be served in one of the military detention centres located around the country.

Other possible penalties included field punishment, confinement to barracks, or loss of pay. Sentences of fewer than seven days were typically served in barracks cells, while longer terms were carried out in military detention centres located across the country.

Both deserters and absentees forfeited their pay for every day they were absent, as well as for any time spent in detention, undergoing field punishment, military detention, or held in civilian custody. They could also be charged for any missing issued kit and for the cost of an escort sent to retrieve them.

Court of Enquiry

In cases where absenteeism was less than 21 days, the case could be dealt with summarily by the commanding officer, who was required to take the circumstances into account. In these cases, the commanding officer could impose detention not exceeding 21 days or refer the case to a court-martial. However, in determining the sentence, the commanding officer had to consider the number of days absent. If the absenteeism exceeded seven days, the number of days in detention could not exceed the number of days absent.

Cases of longer periods were invariably dealt with by a court-martial. When a soldier was absent without leave for 21 clear days, a court of inquiry was assembled to consider what action to take. At the hearing, evidence would be given by witnesses with knowledge of the last known movements or sightings of the absentee. At the conclusion, a court may declare a soldier a deserter. However, this did not preclude the possibility of a charge of desertion being brought if the absentee was arrested within the 21 days. If the absent soldier did not afterwards surrender or was not apprehended, the record of the court of enquiry had the legal effect of a conviction by court-martial for desertion.[14]

A man absent for 21 days or more was usually reported to the civil authorities in the district in which he was last known to have resided, and a description of him was posted in the Police Gazette. Additional figures show that 146, 733 men were classified as deserters by the military because they were missing for longer than 21 days.[15] However, some of these were never captured or court-martialled.  Throughout the war, the Police Gazette carried an average of about a thousand names in these lists every week, all wanted for absenteeism and desertion..

The Civil Courts

During the early years of the war, offenders who were apprehended by the civilian police were usually dealt with by the local magistrates and remanded before being handed over to the military, where they could be brought before a district court martial. In some cases, this was reported in the local newspapers. Jonathan Swan is his book, Law and War, explains this in more detail:

Desertion was an offence under section 154 of the Army Act, 1881, for regular soldiers or section 15 of the Reserve Forces Act, 1882, for Territorials and later for men who had been transferred to the Army Reserves under the Military Service Act, 1916.

Police constables were authorised to arrest anyone suspected of being a deserter and to take them to the magistrates’ court, and likewise, a justice of the peace could issue a warrant for such an arrest. The court had to be satisfied that the man was a deserter or absentee, either by evidence on oath or, more commonly, by confession, in which case he was to be remanded at the police station or local prison until he could be delivered into military custody.

The legal test to determine whether the soldier was a genuine deserter or merely absent without leave (in naval terms, a ‘straggler’ ) was carried out by the army or navy once the man was back at his unit or ship; the magistrates simply had to ensure that he was lawfully detained in civilian custody.

Regular soldiers who fell under section 154 of the Army Act faced no further civil penalty, but on conviction under section 15 of the Reserve Forces Act at the magistrates’ court, reservists could be sentenced to a fine not less than 40s and not more than £25, with the option of imprisonment in default. In practice, the courts were instructed to impose a fine which was then to be deducted from his Army pay – imprisonment in default would simply add a further delay to the man’s return to military duty. The standard fine was 40s, nearly six weeks’ pay. The magistrates were also allowed to recommend a reward, usually 5s, for the informant or arresting officer, payable by the Army Council.[16]

Clearly, there was the incentive of a reward for the police to devote their energies to tracking down deserters. When returned to the military, the decision whether to charge a soldier with desertion or absenteeism would rest with his commanding officer and the officer convening the court-martial, and would depend on the facts of the case, especially regarding any evidence of his intention to return. Later in 1917, the arrested soldier was just held in a police cell before being handed over to the military authorities, and so the newspaper reporting of arrested offenders ceased.

On the Run

Once a soldier or sailor made the decision to desert, they became an outlaw and some remained in that role for the rest of their lives. Deserters on the run had a variety of ways to survive in what was essentially a military state, with the additional hazard of police officers being offered awards for their capture. Many headed for their family homes and communities in the belief that they might find refuge there. Certainly, desertion on this scale required that there was a high degree of collusion from civilians on the home front. However, home was the first place the police looked and they often found deserters hiding in the most unusual places.

Helping or hiding a deserter was treated as a criminal offence. Under Section 153 of the Army Act. It was illegal to encourage a soldier to desert, assist in their escape, or shelter them afterwards. Families of deserters often faced severe consequences, even if they were not actively hiding them. The impact of the law was especially harsh on parents, who were protecting sons already wounded or who had lost other children in the war.

Those found guilty of helping a deserter could face up to six months’ imprisonment, with or without hard labour, and courts were quick to enforce these penalties. From August 1914 through to the end of the war, newspapers frequently reported cases of friends and family members being prosecuted for concealing deserters.

When a soldier deserted, his pay was immediately stopped, and the separation allowance provided to his wife and children was also withdrawn. This policy was intended to pressure the deserter into returning by placing his family under financial strain.

It was probably safer to avoid a family home, which meant that some deserters had to learn how to survive on the run by begging, petty theft and fraud.  A popular way to survive was by pretending to be collecting for charity, preferably dressed in a bandage and in a uniform, not necessarily belonging to the deserter. Often, the uniforms could be traded on the open market, and an officer’s uniform was particularly effective. Farm animals, particularly horses, were very valuable as they could be stolen and sold at a nearby market. Bikes were often stolen for transport and then sold on and there was an illegal trade in diesel and petrol.

Some deserters were able to find work either with friendly employers who knew they were on the run but took the risk of employing them, or sometimes, deserters found work under a false name. However, employing a deserter was considered a serious offence and, depending on the jurisdiction, could be treated as aiding, harbouring, or concealing a person who had committed a capital military crime. An alternative strategy was to migrate abroad. Many chose to go to Ireland, where it was much easier to hide from the authorities, while some emigrated to America.

If deserters were caught after committing a civilian crime, they were brought before the magistrates and sometimes held on remand to appear before the Quarter Sessions. If found guilty of a civilian offence, they would be sentenced to a civilian prison, often with hard labour. Some told the courts what they wanted to hear, while others continued to defy authority. On completion of their sentence, they would then be handed over to the military authorities to face a possible court-martial.

Fraudulent Enlistment

Some found it difficult to survive on the run or changed their minds and enlisted again under a different name. Any soldier serving under a fictitious name was committing an offence called fraudulent enlistment. This includes men who lie on their attestation forms about having previously been in the armed forces.

In its project Alias, the Western Front Association has studied the existing pension records cards for First World War soldiers and discovered that about 10 000 soldiers killed in the war had pension cards which revealed they were serving under a name other than their own. Sometimes the records reveal that these men had a history of using several names and had enlisted in several different regiments.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, as the pension records only list casualties who had a dependent who was able to claim a pension. The unknown figure, which includes those men serving under a name other than their own who survived the war and those who were killed during the war without dependents, must be very much higher than 10,000. However, only about 2000 men faced a tribunal for fraudulent enlistment during the war.

Men had a range of reasons for enlisting under a false name. Deserters, for example, might join a different regiment to escape difficult circumstances such as conflict with officers, bullying, or dissatisfaction with where they were deployed. Some may have left temporarily due to personal or family issues and then enlisted elsewhere to avoid punishment for desertion, or because they found life on the run unsustainable. In some cases, individuals moved between branches of service, such as from the army to the navy, or vice versa.

Doing a Blighty

Faced with the prospect of being killed or permanently disabled, soldiers sometimes hoped that they would receive what was known as a blighty wound and be sent back home. There were some cases where soldiers shot themselves in an attempt to avoid being sent to the frontline or to end their time on the frontline. Self-inflicted wounds (SIW) were a capital offence, and if discovered, a man found guilty of this faced execution by firing-squad. A total of 3,894 men in the British Army were convicted of SIW. None of these men was executed, but they all served periods in prison.[17]

There was also a sharp rise in sexually transmitted diseases. Many armies regularly issued condoms to soldiers going on leave, though these measures were often ineffective. In some cases, soldiers did not even try to avoid infection. Infected prostitutes could earn more than healthy ones, as they attracted men seeking illness as a way to escape front-line duty.

One of the most disturbing manifestations of this was the trade in gonococcal discharge, which soldiers would deliberately apply to themselves in hopes of being hospitalised. In extreme cases, some even exposed their eyes to infection, frequently resulting in permanent blindness. A similar and equally grim practice involved the use of phlegm from tuberculosis sufferers. By the summer of 1917, around 20 per cent of Allied soldiers visiting Paris had contracted infections.[18]

Another strategy for avoiding combat in the First World War was called ‘Live and let Live’. This was an unofficial, tacit system of truces between opposing trench soldiers, particularly on the Western Front, where both sides intentionally restricted violence. Soldiers often agreed not to attack during rest, meals, or sanitation periods, creating localised lulls in fighting to manage the brutal conditions.

Conscription

The introduction of conscription in 1916 led to the calling up of thousands of men, most of whom had already decided they did not want to volunteer to join the military.  Approximately 2.5 million men were conscripted into the British Army during the First World War following the introduction of the Military Service Act in 1916.  About 5 million men joined in total, which meant conscripts made up roughly 50% of the army’s total manpower by 1918.

However, it is clear from the hundreds of appeals to military tribunals that filled the local newspapers from 1916 onwards that many conscripts desperately tried to avoid being sent to fight. From March 1916, local papers in the Forest of Dean carried accounts of hundreds of military tribunals where conscripts applied for exemption from military service, mainly on the grounds of occupation or family circumstances. In addition, the local tribunal could grant an absolute, partial, conditional or temporary exemption from military service on the grounds of conscience.

Nationally, about 20,000 men were awarded the status of conscientious objectors and were able to avoid military combat by providing the authorities at military tribunals with an acceptable moral base for their appeal, usually based on political or religious grounds. Among these were 28 men from the Forest of Dean.

Exemption from combatant service on grounds of conscience was usually conditional on being engaged in work of national importance or in the form of military service in organisations such as the Royal Army Medical Corps or the Non-Combatant Corps (NCC).  If an applicant wanted to apply for exemption, he had to send a written statement arguing his case before the date of the tribunal. At the hearing, the chairman could then cross-examine the applicant to ascertain if his convictions were genuine. There were a huge number of cases before each tribunal, so the hearing could be over in a few minutes before a decision was made.

Each tribunal had a military representative whose job was to speak on behalf of the army and was usually opposed to any application for exemption by conscientious objectors. He was not a member of the tribunal, so he was not meant to be a party to the decision-making. The tribunal was made up of members of the local establishment, such as clergymen, businessmen, mine owners and councillors and trade union representatives.

Although these men were supposed to be impartial, they were usually very patriotic and had little sympathy or understanding of people who were against the war. Most tribunal members refused to accept that the new law gave them powers to grant absolute exemption, with no conditions, from military service. Tribunal members often saw their role as making sure as many men as possible enlisted in the army. This resulted in the frequent abandonment of all sense of judicial impartiality. So, in practice, it was very difficult to convince the tribunal in an application on the grounds of conscience.

In these circumstances, it was particularly hard for young men appearing before a tribunal, as it was necessary to explain in detail the moral, political or religious grounds for making an application for exemption. Most young men in the Forest of Dean would have had little experience of public speaking or the opportunity to express deeply held beliefs. Appearing before senior members of the community would have been a nerve-wracking, confusing and intimidating experience for any young person. This led to some young men failing to seek exemption even when they had a genuine reason to avoid conscription.

This was made worse because tribunal members often viewed young Forest men as little more than delinquents. In October 1916, the Gloucestershire Chronicle warned that miners not fully committed to the war effort could have their exemption on the grounds of occupation removed:

The output of the whole coal field has suffered considerably in the last two weeks, and every special effort will be necessary to make up the loss. There is no need to enlarge upon the plain warnings as to the liability of habitual absentees, of eligible age for military service, but it will be well for such delinquents to remember that their inattention is being taken strict note of by the military authorities.[19]

Call Up Papers

Many men, some of whom were conscientious objectors, simply ignored the call-up papers. Some seemed to be unaware of the seriousness of their actions, while others just disappeared.

At the end of March 1916, the cabinet sent a memo that stated that of 193 891 men who had been called up at that stage, 57,416 had failed to turn up to barracks. Another estimate gives a figure that by July 1916, 93,000 (30%) of those called up after the introduction of conscription in 1916 failed to report to barracks.[20]  The number of men who did not respond to their call-up under the Military Service Act suggests that a substantial segment of the population was unwilling to participate in the war.

The Police Gazette now introduced a new category in their weekly lists of men and included men who had failed to answer their call-up papers. This was a separate section and it usually was made up of about a thousand names per edition, in addition to those who were listed as wanted for desertion and absenteeism.

Most of these absentees were quickly rounded up by the authorities and the arresting officer awarded their 5s reward. They were dealt with as absentees under the Reserve Forces Act and were usually fined 40s and detained in custody to await military escort. However, some were never found, often surviving using clandestine networks created by the anti-war movement, which moved absentees from safe houses to hiding places and vice versa and had links with Ireland and America.

Significantly, the high rate of desertion did not increase after the introduction of conscription, which implies that the existing volunteers were equally keen to avoid combat as the new conscripts.

Demobilisation

Immediately after the armistice, protests erupted in the army and navy over the issues of demobilisation, military discipline and drafting to Russia. Two days after the armistice, 7,000 soldiers marched from their base at Shoreham to Brighton and demanded to be released from the army.[21] There were strikes and demonstrations by discontented servicemen at Biggin Hill, Aldershot, Winchester, Lymington, Bristol, Milford Haven, Plymouth, Falmouth, Felixstowe, Bedford, Kettering, Leeds, Manchester, Blackpool, Edinburgh, the Isle of Wight, Lewes, Southwick, Osterley Park, Bromley, Park Royal and Kempton Park.[22]

The protests continued into early 1919 and in some cases developed into outright mutiny as soldiers disobeyed orders, took over bases and even arranged their own demobilisation. On 3 January, the Daily Herald reported that in Folkestone:

Ten thousand soldiers marched through the town, held a mass meeting at which they formed a soldiers’ union, elected 140 men to act as clerks, took over the demobilisation department, and in one day issued all the necessary pass papers, ration books and railway warrants for the whole camp. By Sunday, the camp was clear.[23]

At the end of January, the trouble spread to Calais, where up to 20,000 men were involved in demobilisation protests and linked up with striking French railway workers closing the ports to prevent the movement of troops.[24] In mid-January, sailors on several ships mutinied and refused to be sent to fight against the Red Army in the Russian civil war.[25] 

In most cases, the scale of the protests meant that the authorities had no choice but to concede to the men’s demands. On 8 February, the loyalty of professional soldiers in the Grenadier Guards and the Household Cavalry was tested when they were ordered to fix bayonets and confront over one thousand armed soldiers who were marching towards parliament, having refused to board trains to France. Churchill wrote later: “I remained in my room, a prey to anxiety”.[26] During January and February, some estimates have up to 100,000 men directly or indirectly involved in these disturbances.[27]

Men continued to desert and the figure from the Police Gazette in January 1919 is 2313. Throughout 1919, the desertion rate continued at an average of 1657 a month.

Detention

At the date of the armistice, there were 3,500 men in detention for military offences, including desertion.[28] However, for most of these men, there would be no early release. despite prison protests and calls for an amnesty from families, politicians, and veterans’ groups.

This was particularly hard on those sentenced to penal servitude. This meant their sentences were longer and they had to perform hard labour in specific “convict prisons” such as Dartmoor and Portland.  In August 1919, a total of 406 soldiers were still serving sentences of penal servitude, and of these, 216 had been sentenced for desertion, and 2 were absentees.[29]

Over the next two years, most of the prisoners had their sentences reduced and were gradually released. As for those still at large, the authorities gradually lost interest and by July 1920, no action would be taken against any deserter even if they requested their discharge papers, pension and back pay owing to them, although often such requests were refused. Men tracked back to their communities and families, with many coming back from Ireland. Generally speaking, they were welcomed and often treated better than conscientious objectors.

Conclusion

For some men, desertion or absenteeism defined their entire military service, bringing severe consequences such as imprisonment or even execution. Sometimes it was in response to the unimaginable horror and brutality of trench warfare and for others it was a practical response to immediate hardship or need to support a family at home. And for others, it was a rational choice between life and death. There was no general pardon for First World War deserters.

[1] Andrea Hetherington, Deserters of the First World War, The Home Front, Yorkshire: Pen and Sword, 2023, 172.

[2] Hetherington, Deserters of the First World War.

[3] David Englander and James Osborne, “Jack, Tommy, and Henry Dubb: The Armed Forces and the Working Class”, The Historical Journal, 21, (1978) 593-621 and Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 1914 -1918, The Live and Let Live System, (London: Pan Books, 1980) and Tony Ashworth, “The Sociology of Trench Warfare 1914-18“, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 19, No. 4 (December 1968) 407-423.

[4] Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes, Shot At Dawn: Executions in World War One by authority of the British Army Act, London: Leo Cooper, 1996.

[5] Statistics of the military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914-1920, London: HMSO, 1922.

[6] Statistics of the military Effort of the British Empire

[7] Hetherington, Deserters of the First World War, 20.

[8] Statistics of the military Effort of the British Empire

[9] https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/military-crimes-1914-1918-british-army/

[10] Statistics of the military Effort of the British Empire

[11] Statistics of the military Effort of the British Empire

[12] Ibid.

[13] Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes, Shot At Dawn, London: Lee Cooper, 1993.

[14] Manual of Military Law, War Office, 1914.

[15] Statistics of the military Effort of the British Empire

[16] Jonathan Swan, Law and War: Magistrates in the Great War Yorkshire: Pen & Sword, 2017, 150-151

[17] https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWblighty.htm

[18] Peter Englund, The Beauty and the Sorrow, London: Profile Books, 2012, 282-283

[19] Gloucestershire Chronicle 7 October 1916.

[20] I. F. W. Beckett, The real unknown army. British conscripts 1916-1990, The Great War, 1914-1918, The Illustrated Journal of First World War History, 2 (1988) 4-13.

[21] Daily Herald 11 January 1919.

[22] G. Dallas and D. Gill, The Unknown Army, Mutinies in the British Army in World War One (London: Verso, 1985) and Simon Webb, 1919, Britain’s Year of Revolution (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2016) 43.

[23] Daily Herald 11 January 1919.

[24] Webb, 1919, 40-41.

[25] Ibid. 24-25.

[26] Ibid. 43.

[27] Ibid. 44.

[28] Hetherington, Deserters of the First World War, 156.

[29] Hetherington, Deserters of the First World War, 157.

Table

The men in the following list are itemised chronologically, based on date of desertion. They are just a few of those so far identified. Details of others will be added as their stories are uncovered. Further details of some of these men are listed in bold on this WordPress site. More to follow.

Some of the men from the Forest of Dean who deserted or went absent without leave between August 1914 and December 1918.

Date of Report	Name	Age	Home and Occupation	Regiment	Source of the Report	War Service
15/10/14	Reginald Packer	19	Cinderford Soldier	1st Grenadier Guards	Various	Killed in France in Dec 1914
12/09/14	Herbert Moyes	19	Awre Farm Labourer	Army	Gloucester Journal
12/09/14	William Watkins	24	Awre Farm Labourer	Army	Gloucester Journal	Discharged on 7 October 1914
03/11/14	Alfred Smith	26	Cinderford Collier	Leicester	Police Gazette
03/11/14	William Burris	19	St Briavels Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette
02/01/15	Albert Welling		No Fixed abode	Royal Navy HMS Hermion	Gloucester Journal
03/01/15	David Williams		Old Croft Collier and Soldier	2nd Glosters	Various	Executed by the IRA in 1920
26/01/15	W Hopkins	31	Newent Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette	W Hopkins is listed on the Newent War Memorial
01/02/15	Edward Wayman	23	Huntley Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers and RFA	Police Gazette
16/02/15	Martin Brady	28	Coleford Cook	RGA	Police Gazette
20/02/15	Charles Jeffrey	21	Pillowell Collier	3rd Glosters	Police Gazette	Discharged 22 May 1916
23/02/15	John Roberts	32	Cinderford Shop Assistant	10th Glosters	Police Gazette
23/03/15	Thomas Dormer	34	Bream Collier	13th Glosters & 12th South Wales	Police Gazette
06/04/15	William Taylor	26	Longhope Collier	10th Glosters	Police Gazette	Discharged 21 Feb 1916. Incapacitated by the war
13/04/15	Jeremiah Smith	30	Coleford Collier	RFA	Police Gazette	Discharged 12 June 1918
01/05/15	John Matthews		Eltoe, Blakeney	19th Hussars	Gloucester Journal
15/05/15	Horace Beard	24	Newnham Seaman	12th Worcesters	Gloucester Journal	Discharged 2 June 1916
18/05/15	George Hawkins	21	Coleford Wheelwright	11th Worcesters	Police Gazette
15/06/15	Howard Dowler	29	Coleford Collier	3rd Glosters	Police Gazette	Discharged 29 May 1916.
22/06/15	George Harris	35	Newnham Collier	3rd Glosters	Police Gazette
13/07/15	J W Parry		Coleford	Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers	Police Gazette
17/07/15	Arthur Bevan	24	Blakeney Mason	Welsh Artillery	Gloucester Journal
20/07/15	Edward Wall	29	Cinderford Collier	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
20/07/15	Daniel Sullivan	28	Cinderford Ship Fireman	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
27/07/15	William Waltham	28	Cinderford Collier	13th Glosters	Police Gazette	Discharged 21 Aug 1918
27/07/15	Fred Chandler	28	Newland Collier	11th Welsh Fusiliers	Police Gazette
03/08/15	Alfred Brace	19	Redmarley Gardener	9th Glosters	Police Gazette	Brace on Newent war memorial
17/08/15	Charles Stephens	33	Cinderford Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette	Discharged 15/9/16.
01/09/15	Oliver Brown		Cinderford Collier		Police Gazette	Killed in France in April 1917
11/09/15	Sidney Charles Knight	19	Awre. Sailor	13th Glosters	Gloucester Journal	Wounded 16/4/18
5/10/15	Charles Norman	24	Westbury Collier	7th Reserve RFA	Police Gazette
15/10/15	Lewis Moore		Ruardean Hill Collier	Royal Engineers	Dean Forest Mercury	Discharged April 1919
26/10/15	Alex Mckenzie	28	Lydney Collier	11th Glosters	Police Gazette
02/11/15	Thomas Potter	38	Cinderford Collier	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
02/11/15	John Worgan	38	Cinderford Collier	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
09/11/15	W Robinson	18	Redmarley	5the Grenadier Guards	Police Gazette
14/11/15	Frederick Smith	34	Staunton Shopkeeper		Police Gazette
16/11/15	Alfred Jones	18	Dymock Farm Labourer	Shropshire Light Infantry	Police Gazette	Killed in France on 31 December 1917
30/11/15	Charles Stephens	33	Cinderford Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette
30/11/15	W Fennell	31	Cinderford Collier	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
07/12/15	Stanley Birt	23	Cinderford Engineer	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
21/12/15	W E Brown	20	Soudley Collier	13th Glosters or RFA	Police Gazette
04/01/16	George Haggar	35	Broadwell Colliery Bricklayer	13th Glosters	Police Gazette
11/01/16	William Bourne	30	Coleford Collier	3rd Glosters	Police Gazette
22/01/16	James Thomas			Royal Horse Artillery	Gloucester Journal
22/01/16	Albert Goode		Viney Hill	3rd Glosters	Gloucester Journal	Had both feet amputated because of frostbite in April 1918
19/02/16	Pte James		Lydney	3rd Monmouth Territorials	Police Gazette
14/03/16	Arthur. Powles		Forest of Dean Collier	South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette
25/04/16	Charles Stephens	34	Cinderford Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette
06/05/16	Edward Wilce		Drybrook Collier	Army	Gloucester Journal
20/05/16	Maurice Austin		Alyburton Bricklayer	3rd Welsh t	Gloucester Journal
27/06/16	Charles Stephens	34	Cinderford Collier	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette
04/07/16	Thomas Greatley	41	Coleford Labourer	3rd South Wales Borderers	Police Gazette
08/08/16	Sidney Seaborn	37	Newent Watchman		Police Gazette
07/08/16	Sidney White	24	Newland Stoker	Cumberland deserter	Police Gazette
12/08/16	J Villis		Newent Soldier		Police Gazette
22/08/16	Earnest C Hawkins	22	Newland Collier	Royal Fusiliers	Police Gazette	Wounded, 1917 and 3 May 1918
12/09/16	Edward Jones	35	Newent Baker		Police Gazette
14/09/18	Thomas Hammerton	18	Beachley	Army	Gloucester Journal
25/09/16	David Williams					Executed by the IRA in 1920
14/10/16	William Howells		Coleford	Glosters and Machine Gun Corps	Dean Forest Mercury
24/10/16	William Wood				Police Gazette
14/11/16	Frederick Smith	34	Staunton Shopkeeper		Police Gazette
19/12/16	M H Saunders	29	Dymock Bricklayer’s labourer		Police Gazette
05/02/17	John Knight	36	Blaisdon Stoker	Royal Navy HMS Centurion	Police Gazette
27/02/17	Henry Parry	37	Newnham Stoker	In WtrTrans RE	Police Gazette
07/04/17	William James Jones	36	Lydbrook	Royal Garrison Artillery	Various
16/06/17	Thomas Nelmes	41	Coleford	King’s Liverpool	Various
21/07/17	Reginald Crockett	21	Mitcheldean labourer	Monmouthshire	Various
25/09/17	Alfred Childs	19	Coleford Coal haulier	Glosters	Police Gazette
22/01/18	Joseph Smith	32	Lydney Seaman	LW&DRE	Police Gazette
09/02/18	Jack Davis		Gypsy Camp in the Forest	Army	Gloucester Journal
09/02/18	Albert Johns		Gypsy Camp in the Forest	Army	Gloucester Journal
02/03/18	Herbert Wyman	41	Westbury-on-Severn	Army	Gloucester Journal
25/05/18	William Lewis		Ruardean Hill	Royal Engineers	Gloucester Journal
14/09/18	Sidney Pullen	35	Coalway Lane End Collier	Glosters	Gloucester Journal
24/09/18	Powell	23	Coleford Collier	24th Lancs Fusiliers	Police Gazette
22/11/18	Thomas White		Lydney		Police Gazette
10/12/18	Edward Wall	33	Cinderford Collier	3rd Glosters	Police Gazette
17/12/18	F F Hall	18	Cinderford Grocers Assistant	Royal Artillery	Police Gazette