Poperinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium. 

Poperinghe became famous as one of the main Court Martial Centres where soldiers accused of cowardice and desertion were prosecuted, and in many cases sentenced to be executed by firing squad - 'Shot at Dawn' - to set a harsh example to deter other soldiers from deserting. Some of those soldiers were buried in Poperinghe. 

Some 200,000 soldiers men were court-martialled during WW1, and if those some 20,000 were convicted of offences carrying the death penalty. 3,080 were condemned to death and of those, 346 sentences were carried. 91 of those 346 were already under a suspended sentence; 41 of those executed had previously been the subject of a commuted death sentences; one had had a death sentence commuted on two spearate occasions before.

 Of the 346 men who were executed, 309 were later (2007) pardoned, The 37 who were not pardoned had been convicted of  murder, and would have been executed under civilian law anyway. In some cases these sentences were recommended to be commuted on the grounds of medical reports presented by medical officers on the soldiers' behalf; sadly the High Command ignored those reports and recommendations and insisted that the sentences be carried out to deter other soldiers. 

The vast majority, if not all of those executed for desertion / cowardice, were suffering from various forms of shell shock, and should have been treated as mental health patients, not executed; many had previously been model soldiers. 

Please note that only a small percentage of those buried in Poperinghe New Cemetery were 'Shot at Dawn'. I do not intend to identify those soldiers and will treat them with the same respect and dignity as the other men buried there.