World War I: Peter Black
There are 84 names on the Newport War Memorial, 84 young men from Newport, Wormit and Forgan who did not return from World War I. There are many names you will recognise as belonging to families still in Newport more than a century later. Look for the name of Peter Black, the young man whose name almost didn’t appear.
Shot At Dawn (Pour Encourager Les Autres)
Peter joined the army as soon as World War I broke out and, like so many others from this area, served in the Black Watch. During fierce fighting in 1915, he suffered from shell shock and was severely disturbed. He then experienced further fierce fighting in the Somme area in 1916, and at that point his nerve finally cracked and he deserted. Sadly, in the armies of World War I, there was no place for deserters, and as punishment and as an example to others, like 305 others, Peter was shot by firing squad in September 1916. He was aged just 21.
Justice?
When the authorities were arranging the erection of the war memorial in Newport, local people, including many young men who had fought with Peter, were outraged to learn that as a deserter, his name would be excluded. Explosives were stolen from a local quarry and hidden in a house in Robert Street, and threats to blow up the memorial were made unless Peter’s name was included. His name was added, and the explosives found their way back to the quarry.
Pardon
Although the Newport lads had staunchly defended Peter’s memory, this was not always the case, and deserters’ families were very often made to feel ashamed. 306 British Army and Commonwealth soldiers were shot as deserters in WW1, and for 90 years the stigma of desertion was attached to their names. In 2006 it was at last announced by the Government that all 306 of the First World War soldiers who were shot for cowardice or desertion would be granted a posthumous pardon (see certificate of Peter’s pardon on the right).
Remembrance
For many years, I visited the battlefields and cemeteries of World War I in Belgium and France with pupils from Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, on their annual study visit. It was a very special moment for me when we were able to track down and visit Peter’s grave in Les Trois Arbres cemetery in northern France. I have visited on many occasions since, always leaving a poppy cross and remembering that young man and the miserable end to his young life, but never seeing any indication of any other visitors. Peter’s mother had died when he was a boy. I wonder if his father, a jobbing gardener in Newport, was ever able to visit his son’s grave? Somehow I think probably not.
Peter’s family lived on in Newport for another 20 years. In other places families faced huge stigma for sons who had deserted and been executed. It’s good to think that here in Newport, the support shown by Peter’s own friends, comrades and associates, must have given some comfort to his family.
Poperinghe
In the Belgian village of Poperinghe there is a chilling reminder of these WWI executions. In the small courtyard behind the town hall, a firing post has been preserved. Here, some of the army executions were carried out. Poperinghe is no distance from Les Trois Arbres cemetery where Peter is buried, and it’s quite possible that he was one of the prisoners held in the cells here before being taken out to his death by firing squad.
National Memorial Arboretum
At the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, one area has been dedicated to the 306 British soldiers who were shot as deserters.The memorial portrays a young British soldier blindfolded and tied to a stake, ready to be shot by a firing squad. It is surrounded by a semicircle of stakes, on each of which are listed the names of the soldiers executed in this fashion. Interestingly, Peter’s plaque states his age as unknown: we know he was just 21 years old.
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Very moving and powerful. Thank you for telling Peter’s story, and keeping the memoty of him, and others like him, alive.
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