TONY Matthews, an author who has written extensively on the history of country Queensland, has just released a new book which takes a hard look at some of the least known aspects of the First World War.
The Western Front during the war was a place closer to hell than any man has ever been but Tony Matthews tells the story of an incredible struggle for survival. The soldiers fighting in the trenches at that time were faced with not one, but two murderous enemies: the German forces facing them across No-Man’s-Land comprised their principal foe but there was another insidious adversary and this was the British military system itself.
A Dawn with no Birdsong has been inspired by real historical events. Few people today know of the hidden statistic of the First World War but it is a fact that the British were callously executing their own soldiers and members of their allied forces at the rate of one man approximately every four days for the entire four years of the war.
November 11 this year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War but one of the least known aspects of the war is that 121 men serving with Australian military forces were sentenced to death during the conflict, many of them just country lads who had volunteered for service without really knowing what they were letting themselves in for.
The Australian Government during the war banned the use of capital punishment and no Australians were legally executed with the exception of several who were serving with the New Zealand or South African military forces. One man, a former miner from Dubbo, was shot arbitrarily without trial after he had refused to carry ammunition or fight. He is the only Anzac known to have been shot to death on orders from a superior officer.
A Dawn with no Birdsong delves deeply into the policy of the British military in executing soldiers for misdemeanours such as sleeping at a post, shell-shock, striking an officer, and other similar ‘crimes’.
A Dawn with no Birdsong is a novel, but it is also an examination and, I hope, a powerful indictment of the British military system of field punishment at that time.
- Tony Matthews, author
During the four years of war a total of 346 men were executed by British firing squads for just such offences.
Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour receiving his personally signed copy of A Dawn with no Birdsong from author Tony Matthews .
Some of the victims were as young as 17 years. Most of the executed men were subsequently pardoned posthumously by the British Government but for many decades the families of those soldiers had been forced to live with the shame and ignominy. Additionally, the men who had been forced to
form the firing squads also had to live with their actions, and the guilt never left them. Some in later life committed suicide.
“A Dawn with no Birdsong is a novel, but it is also an examination and, I hope, a powerful indictment of the British military system of field punishment at that time,” Tony Matthews said.
“I wrote A Dawn with no Birdsong as a tribute to all those soldiers who were killed unnecessarily by their British masters.’
In 2001 the poignant ‘Shot at Dawn Memorial’ to the executed men was unveiled at Alrewas, Staffordshire, England. It is a stark memorial depicting a statue, some eight feet in height, of a blindfolded soldier standing waiting to be shot. The statue was created by British sculptor Andy DeComyn.
Tony Matthews is the author of 30 published books. He is well known in country Queensland for the many books he has written on the history of regional centres. He wrote a twin-volume history of the South Burnett district, followed by a massive triple volume history of the Chinchilla Shire and then a similar sized history for the Wondai Shire. He has written the histories of many major pastoral stations in Australia including the history of all the stations owned by the Australian Agricultural Company, so his work is known and very highly respected among country Queenslanders. He has also written hundreds of hugely popular historical radio programs for the ABC which have been broadcast into country Queensland.
A Dawn with no Birdsong will be launched by Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour at Maryborough’s Brolga Theatre on November 17. The event is free and open to the public. For bookings phone the Hervey Bay Library - 07 4197 4220 or the Maryborough Library - 07 4190 5788.
A Dawn with no Birdsong is available at leading bookstores or directly from the publisher, Boolarong Press in Brisbane. It is also available from Amazon.
