Appeal for funds to renovate Shot at Dawn memorial

An appeal has been launched by the National Memorial Arboretum to raise £45,000 to renovate one of its most visited memorials.

Shot At Dawn pays tribute to 309 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were executed during the World War One for desertion and cowardice.

In 2006, all of those executed were formally pardoned, 90 years after their deaths.

The Staffordshire memorial was installed in 2001, and the 309 wooden stakes representing the soldiers are now beyond repair, the arboretum said.

Refurbishment work is set to start in May, when the stakes will be replaced with a more durable material.

Drainage at the site of the tribute will also be improved, following repeated flooding.

"Our visitors regularly tell us how deeply affected they are by the Shot at Dawn memorial," said Maria Howes from the arboretum.

The memorial is situated on the eastern edge of the 150-acre site, making it the first to be touched by the sun’s rays at dawn.

However, because it is next to the River Tame, the 309 wooden stakes have already had to be replaced a number of times because of flooding.

Many of the 309 soldiers who were put before a firing squad were sentenced after a short trial and had no real opportunity to offer a defence, said the arboretum.

Some were under-age, and many were likely to have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which was not recognised as a medical condition until 1980, it added.

The memorial features a statue of a young, blindfolded soldier, with six conifer trees in front to represent a firing squad, and 309 stakes behind, bearing the names of those who were executed.

Its sculptor Andy DeComyn, said he made it his mission to create a memorial for the soldiers, and to find a dignified place for it.

The arboretum has been "fantastic custodians," and the fundraising campaign "will mean that it continues to tell the Shot at Dawn story for generations to come”, he added.

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