HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope is backing Government moves to pardon soldiers shot for cowardice, desertion and other battlefield offences during the First World War.

The names of around 30 executed Lancashire soldiers, who are now thought to have been suffering from shell shock or other trench-induced mental illnesses, could be cleared if a pardon is granted.

Mr Pope, a long-time supporter of the campaign for a pardon, said he hoped it would succeed this time.

He said: "It is now clear that most of the soldiers who were executed didn't have proper trials, there was no right of appeal and most of them were suffering from what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder.''

One of the soldiers who could be pardoned is Sgt Harry Ashton from Blackburn, who was wounded twice but was sent back to fight. Sick of the carnage he saw in Greece, he missed a battle which claimed the lives of more than 100 of his pals.

His punishment for desertion was to be gunned down at dawn by a firing squad. He was just 20 years old.

Sgt Ashton, whose mother lived in Ramsgreave Road, Wilpshire, was reported at the time to have "fallen in action."

The report of his death in the Blackburn Times included the ironic epitaph: "He was held in high esteem by all who knew him."

Mr Pope said it was interesting that no soldiers had been executed in that way during the Second World War. "There was clearly a change of policy by the chiefs of staff who realised the horrendous mistake that had been made during the First World War."

A total of 307 British soldiers would be covered by a blanket pardon, expected to be granted by the end of the year.

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