Harry Farr Private Harry Farr ( 1891 - 18 October 1916 ) was a British soldier who was executed during World War I for cowardice at age 25 . He came from Kensington in London and was in the 1st Battalion , the West Yorkshire Regiment . Background . Harry Farr was born in 1891 . Farr joined the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and fought in the trenches . His position was repeatedly shelled , and in May 1915 he collapsed with strong convulsions . In hospital , his wife Gertrude ( died in 1993 aged 99 ) , who was denied a widow ' s pension after the war , recalled , “ He shook all the time . He couldn ' t stand the noise of the guns . We got a letter from him , but it was in a stranger ' s handwriting . He could write perfectly well , but couldn ' t hold the pen because his hand was shaking . ” It is now thought that Farr was possibly suffering from hyperacusis , which occurs when the olivocochlear bundle in the inner ear is damaged by sound causing it to lose its ability to soften and filter sound , making loud noises physically unbearable ( auditory efferent dysfunction ) . Despite this , Farr was sent back to the Front and fought at the Somme . After several months of fighting , he requested to see a medical orderly but was refused . After the boy refused to return to the front line , he was subjected to a court martial , at which he had to defend himself . This lasted only 20 minutes , and some questions have been raised about its competence . General Sir Douglas Haig signed his death warrant and he was shot at dawn on 18 October 1916 . His family have always argued that he was suffering from shell shock at the time . He was tried in court for misbehaving before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice and found guilty and was sentenced to be executed . Soldiers in the firing squad ordered to carry out the execution were often tormented by the experience for the rest of their lives . John Laister , who died in 1999 at the age of 101 , recalled how he and a number of others were marched into the woods and told they were to be part of a firing squad . Speaking on the BBC television programme " Everyman " in 2006 , Laister said he was still haunted by the moment that he looked in the direction the rifles were pointed and saw a mere boy stood with his back to a tree . “ There were tears in his eyes and tears in mine . ” Pardon . Harry Farr ' s wife Gertrude , then living in Kensington , London , was first told her husband had been killed in action , but later when her pension was stopped , she was informed he had been shot for cowardice and she was not entitled to it . In 1992 , Gertrude and her family discovered that some documents were being released by the government and that Andrew MacKinlay MP was involved in a campaign for justice for those in similar positions to Farr . When they got hold of the court martial papers , they were horrified to discover that Farr had been sent back to the front , when he in fact needed urgent medical treatment . Despite a sustained campaign , Prime Minister John Major refused a pardon . In 1993 Gertrude Farr died . On 15 August 2006 , Harry Farr ' s family announced that Farr was to be granted a pardon . The announcement came as Des Browne , the Defence Secretary , said that he would seek a statutory group pardon ; i . e . one achieved through an Act of Parliament for all those executed regardless of the individual merits of the case . Des Browne told BBC Radio 4 ' s " Today " programme that , after 90 years , " the evidence just doesn ' t exist inside the cases individually " . It has been suggested that the move would avoid numerous court cases . A group pardon would also exonerate those who had been properly found guilty of cowardice . An historian said that of cases in the Royal Norfolk Regiment he had examined there was at least one who had a history of desertion . Historians have criticised such a move in the past as trying to apply modern standards retroactively . The mass pardon of 306 British Empire soldiers executed for certain offences during the Great War was enacted in section 359 of the Armed Forces Act 2006 , which came into effect on royal assent on 8 November 2006 . This number included three from New Zealand , twenty three from Canada , two from the West Indies , two from Ghana and one each from Sierra Leone , Egypt and Nigeria . Tom Watson , then Parliamentary Under - Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence , was instrumental in including this in the Act . He was said to have acted having met the relatives of Private Farr . However section 359 ( 4 ) states that the pardon " does not affect any conviction or sentence . " Since the nature of a pardon is normally to commute a sentence , Gerald Howarth MP asked during parliamentary debate : " we are entitled to ask what it does do . " It would appear to be a symbolic pardon only , and some members of Parliament had called for the convictions to be quashed , although the pardon has still been welcomed by relatives of executed soldiers . ' Song For Harry Farr ' , written by Huw Pudner and Chris Hastings in 2006 is about Harry Farr ' s execution on the western front . The UK rock group , Stray included the song , " Harry Farr " on their 2009 album , Valhalla .