I am so sorry that you had to witness that. The boys shot at dawn. “Boys”. The word keeps going over in my mind. Just boys they were. As young as 14 you said, or perhaps barely that. Appearances can be deceptive, and with the recruitment need so great, who in that moment would question? A little lie about one’s age for the greater good, to serve King and country, what Recruiting Officer would stand in the way? I am quite sure some of them must have known, and yet I struggle with how they and their conscience before God could allow these children to sign up. I wrestled with the idea that perhaps they believed it to be for the better? Who knows what poverty or difficult family circumstances these youngsters sought to escape? Not all families are as loving as ours, certainly not! But, I come back again and again to this word: Boys. They were just boys.
It took a few days to digest your letter,so I apologise for the delay in reply. I could not believe that this was true. I simply could not believe that in all knowledge that the British Army would shoot children for cowardice. But apart from the fact that you, my Darling, would not lie to me, how you were so affected by this came through in your words, and your emotional and vivid descriptions leave me in no doubt. Their sobbing, the cries in vain for “Mother!”, the one who wet himself as he was tied… It… It is beyond words.
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