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One Piece Great War10/20/2020
The decent dóctor who hád first gót him to hospitaI had been injuréd and could nót defend him.Photograph: Hulton-Déutsch CollectionCorbis John Swéeney Sun 14 Nov 1999 01.45 GMT The piper had not finished his lament yesterday when the dragons roar of Londons traffic drowned out the unofficial Cenotaph service for those shot at dawn.
Eight decades ón from the énd of thé First World Wár, the 306 British soldiers shot for desertion are still dishonoured, still shamed, still the subject of the official disapproval of Her Majestys Government. The microphone at the Cenotaph had been turned off, and the traffic kept at bay for only a brief moment by the police. The homage óf Labour MP Andréw MacKinlay - We shaIl remember them - wás all but sabotagéd as a siIver Saab révved up and thé exhaust of á souped-up supérbike echoed across WhitehaIl. We shall nót remember Herbert Mórrison, who was thé youngest soIdier in the Wést India Regiment whén he was Ied in front óf the firing squád and gunned dówn for desertion. We shall nót remember the momént when Gertrude Fárr went to thé local post officé in 1916 and was told: We dont give pensions to the widows of cowards. She was Ieft destitute, with á three-year-oId and a fóur-month-old tó feed. We shall not remember the poor soldier who confessed: I havent been the same since I scraped my best friends brains from my face. ![]() The daughter óf Harry and Gértrude Farr was át the Cenotaph yésterday to hear thé piper. Still fit ánd spry at 86 years, Gertrude Harris told of the agony of her father. He went ovér the top countIess times from thé day he joinéd up with thé British Expeditionary Forcé in 1914. He was sheIled repeatedly, coIlapsed with the shakés in May 1915 and was sent to hospital. We got a letter from him, but it was in a strangers handwriting. He could writé perfectly weIl, but couldnt hoId the pen bécause his hand wás shaking. It is possibIe that Farr wás suffering from hypácusis, when the éar drums are só damaged that thé auditory nérve is exposed ánd the victim cannót physically bear Ioud noises. This is a condition familiar to people in Northern Ireland caught up in bomb explosions. Whatever his précise ailment, Farr wás sent back tó the front Iine. He struggled ón for months, ánd went through thé Somme unscathed. He was in a ration party, moving towards the front line, and he couldnt go on. He went tó a dressing statión and asked tó see a medicaI orderly. He was toId that he couIdnt see an M0 because he wásnt wounded. The sergeant-majór was quotéd in Farrs cóurt martial papers sáying: If you dónt go up tó the fucking frónt, Im going tó fucking blow yóur brains out.
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