Friday July 19th, 1918
Fifth day defaulters. Fatigues and gas parades. Drill parade afternoon. Raining hard at night.
Crucifixion – The Big Guns Wade In
In reaction to the public outcry about Field Punishment No 1, the War Office contacted all the Commanders-in-Chief of overseas armies asking for their views and whether anyone had died as a result of the sentence. Douglas Haig also canvassed the opinions of his army commanders.
The Commanders-in-Chiefs had mixed views with those in India and Mesopotamia being in favour of its abandonment and those in Egypt and Salonika wanting it retained. All reported that no-one had died during the punishment.
Haig’s commanders were broadly supportive of retaining the punishment (apart from Edmund Allenby of the Third Army who likened it to being in ‘the stocks or pillory’). Several however suggested that clearer instructions be provided on how to a prisoner should be tied up.¹
Haig’s Proposal
Douglas Haig wrote a letter to the War Office on December 4th, 1916. It was to be very influential.
He gave three, actually quite sad, reasons for retaining Field Punishment No 1. ‘First, he cited the lack of a suitable alternative. Imprisonment removed men from the fighting line and compared favourable with ‘discomfort in the trenches’, extra work was meaningless ‘when all are hard worked to the fullest extent’, while forfeiture of pay was ‘little felt when opportunities for spending money are scarce’. Second, he argued that the physical convenience must be sufficiently ‘irksome’ so as to be a noticeable deterrent in an environment where the conditions are already far from optimal. Lastly, he suggested that abolishing the punishment without replacement would lead to more frequent recourse to the death penalty.’²
However he then went on to suggest that the punishment should be standardized – particularly in the way the shackling and tying up was administered.
The War Office Responds
Haig’s suggestions were accepted. In January 1917, the War Office produced a sketch of how a soldier should be tied up under Field Punishment No 1. Instructions were given that the ropes should not be tied too tightly. It also stated that the punishment should only be awarded for offences of ‘a disgraceful or insubordinate nature or for drunkeness‘.º
In March, 1917 during the second reading of the Army (Annual) Bill. Mr Macpherson, Under Secretary for War, ‘…was glad of the acknowledgment that the War Office had fulfilled its promise to remove the objectionable feature from Field Punishment No 1. He hoped the honourable members would not press him to introduce a clause dealing with the matter.’³
Over the course of the war, Field Punishment No 1 was administered over 60,000 times. It would finally be abolished by the Army and Air Force (Annual) Act of 1923.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 19th July 1918 – Abancourt, France
Training as in programme. B & A & HQ Coys fumigated blankets and underclothing. Battalion football against 5th Inniskillin Fusiliers. Battalion won 1-0. All men refitted with SB respirators by Area Gas Officer. Capt FT Taylor MC left on leave.
References & Further Reading
¹ ‘Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18′ by Charles Messenger, Orion,
² ‘In Their Own Words: Letters from History’ by The National Archives, Bloomsbury, 2016
º ‘Field Punishment No 1‘ – by John Simkin on Spartacus
³ Article in The Guardian, March 27th, 1917, page 6
* Image from Wikimedia Commons (public domain)