Shot at Dawn
Second Lieutenant Eric Skeffington Poole born in Nova Scotia, Canada but served with the BEF in the Great War. Shell-shocked a week into the Battle of the Somme, Shot at Dawn by the end of 1916, becoming the first British Officer executed by his own men in the Great War.
Erik born 20 January 1885, son of Henry Skeffington Poole and Florence Hope Gibsone Poole, of 2 Rectory Place, Guildford, Surrey. Brother of Henry Raynolde, Mrs. Florence Lucy Kennaway, Nancy Evelyn and Margaret Dorothy.
Previous military experience with the 63rd Regiment of the Halifax Rifles (1903 – 1905). The Poole family returned to England before the outbreak of the Great War, settling in Guildford, Surrey.
Enlistment of Eric Skeffington Poole
In October 1914, Driver Eric Skeffington Poole joined H.A.C. (the Honourable Artillery Company), as a driver (in ‘B Battery’) for seven months.
Poole’s Territorial Force attestation form reveals a commission as a temporary second lieutenant in the 14th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment as of 3 May 1915.
In June of 1916, Second Lieutenant Eric Poole transferred to serve in France with the 11th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment.
Battle of the Somme
According to the medical history sheet compiled for Poole’s general court martial in November 1916 he suffered ‘shell shock‘ after being hit by clods of earth distributed by an enemy shell during fighting on the Somme on 7 July 1916. After a period of recuperation, Poole returned to duty with his battalion at the end of August. Second Lieutenant Poole soon placed in charge of ‘C Company’ platoon at Martinpuich near Albert.
The Battle of Flers-Courcelette
According to his own testimony at his trial, the shell-shock injury caused Poole to ‘at times get confused and have great difficulty in making up my mind’. During this condition that he wandered away from his platoon on 5 October 1916, during a move into the frontline trenches at Flers.
Poole apprehended by the military police two days later and arrested on 10 October. In early November, decided to try Poole by FGCM for deserting ‘when on active service’.
Field General Court Martial of Eric Skeffington Poole
At Poole’s trial, held in Poperinghe on 24 November 1916, the prosecution called six witnesses. Most noted Poole’s ‘nerves seemed rather shaken’ and feeling ‘damned bad’ on the morning of 5 October 1916.
Two men spoke in Poole’s defence, including an RAMC officer who argued that the ‘mental condition’ of the accused had precluded him from intentionally deserting his company. In his own testimony, Poole outlined his recent medical problems and confessed that he had been unaware of ‘the seriousness of not going to the front line on Oct 5th’.
Despite defence pleas, however, the five-man court found Poole guilty of desertion and sentenced him to ‘death by being shot’.
This verdict confirmed by Sir Douglas Haig on 6 December 1916, three days after a medical board sent to examine Poole concluded that ‘he was of sound mind and capable of appreciating the nature and quality of his actions’.
Poole was executed by firing squad in Poperinghe town hall on 10 December 1916. He was buried in the town’s military cemetery.
First British Officer Executed
Eric Poole the first British army officer sentenced to death and executed during the Great War. Despite abundant evidence he was medically unfit to command a platoon as a result of shell shock, Poole just a victim of a political decision. In his diary entry of 6 December 1914, Haig wrote ‘it is… highly important that all ranks should realise the law is the same for an officer as a private’.
The War Office decided Poole’s name not to appear in the casualty lists published in British newspapers, and that no information about the circumstances of his death made public.
Poperinghe New Military Cemetery
The town of Poperinge of great importance during the war because, although occasionally bombed or bombarded at long range, the nearest place to Ieper both considerable in size and reasonably safe.
At first a centre for Casualty Clearing Stations, but by 1916 necessary to move these units further back and field ambulances took their places. The earliest Commonwealth graves in the town in the communal cemetery.
The Old Military Cemetery made in the course of the First Battle of Ypres and closed at the beginning of May 1915. The New Military Cemetery established in June 1915.
Erik Skeffington Poole Shot at Dawn CEFRG 
Joseph LaLancette Shot at Dawn CEFRG 
Come Laliberte Shot at Dawn CEFRG 
James Wilson Shot at Dawn CEFRG 
Shot at Dawn. Sergeant William Alexander. 10th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Alberta Regiment). Brother of A.M. Alexander of Winnipeg, Manitoba. “Bill” served for 8 years in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps before emigrating to Canada. 
Eugene Perry Shot at Dawn CEFRG
Poperinghe New Military Cemetery noted for the 17 executed soldiers amongst its burials. Unlike its numerical counterpart in France at Mazingarbe, the soldiers here for the most part shot within the walls of the town hall. At Mazingarbe the abattoir used.
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