John Henry Paterson

Second Lieutenant J. H. Patterson, 3rd Bn. Essex Regiment, attached 1st Bn. Executed for murder 24/09/1918

• Name: PATERSON, JOHN H.
• Initials: J H
• Nationality: United Kingdom
• Rank: Second Lieutenant
• Regiment/Service: Essex Regiment
• Unit Text: 3rd Bn. attd. 1st Bn.
• Secondary Regiment: Essex Regiment
• Date of Death: 24/09/1918
• Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
• Grave/Memorial Reference:IV. B. 48.
• Cemetery: TERLINCTHUN BRITISH CEMETERY, WIMILLE

Grave stone

2nd Lieutenant John Paterson

• 3rd Bn attached 1st Bn Essex Regiment
• Shot 24 September 1918
• Shot at Dawn for Murder
• One of only three officers who were shot during the First World War.
• Paterson had originally joined the 17th Bn Middlesex Regiment (The Footballing Battalion) as an enlisted soldier. He arrived in France at the end of the 1915 and was wounded twice during the Battle of the Somme.
• In 1917 he was commissioned from the ranks and sent to the 1st Bn Essex Regiment in September 1917. Six months later he deserted and made his way to Boulogne where he was recognised on the 3rd July 1918 by two members of the RMP (Military Police).
• Paterson admitted his identity but was allowed into a house to say goodbye to a French lady. The two policemen remained outside the house to prevent their prisoner from escaping.
• In trying to slip out the back of the house Paterson was confronted by Sergeant Harold Collison whom Paterson shot with his revolver. In the ensuing fracas Paterson made good his escape. Collison died of his wounds the following day.
• The search for Paterson moved to St Omer where he was arrested by French Gendarmes. Although charged with both desertion and murder Paterson was only tried for the latter, found guilty and sentenced to death.

John Henry Paterson born 22nd May 1890 in Bow.

• His mother is called Sarah.
• Educated at Forest Gate Commercial College and Civil Service College
• Was a trader in West Africa until February 1914.
• Joined the 17th Middlesex (Footballer's Battalion) on 6/4/1915 (F/1239)
• 15/08/15 Overstayed leave
• 05/09/15 Making an improper remark to a warrant officer
• 16/09/15 Making an improper remark on parade
• Went to France 17/11/1915 as a private
• Hospitalised 2 weeks in Feb 1916
• Married Alice in 1916
• Evacuated (shellshock) at Delville Wood 19/7/1916. Returned to unit 1/9/1916
• Wounded (GSW left hand) Beaumont Hamel 13/11/1916
• Sent home for officer training in March 1917 (applied while injured at 41 Infantry Base Depot).
• He was commissioned into the Essex Regiment 27/9/1917
• Returned to the Western Front as platoon commander around November 1917
• Was in 3rd Bn attached 1st Bn Essex Regiment
• Deserted 26/3/1918. His battalion was in reserve near Zillebeke.
• Cashes five forged cheques in the Calais area.
• Murdered Sgt Harold Arthur Collison 3/7/1918
• Escapes with Augustine Duquenoy, aged 22. They split up 2 days later.
• Apprehended by French Gendarmes in St Omer 11pm 22/7/1918
• General Court Martial at Boulogne 11/12 Sep 1918
• Douglas Haig confirms decision 20/9/1918
• Executed at Boulogne 6.27a.m. 24/9/1918
• Buried at Terlincthun British Cemetery http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=157956

Second Lieu­ten­ant John Pater­son

• com­mis­sioned from the ranks, ori­gin­ally enlis­ted into the Middle­sex Regi­ment, and the pre­fix of his army num­ber, F/1239, indicates that he had joined the ‘Foot­ballers’ bat­talion - con­firmed by medal records which show that he went to France in Novem­ber 1915.

It is reported that twice in the fol­low­ing year Pater­son was wounded on the Somme, and that in March 1917 he was returned home for officer training. In Septem­ber 1917 Pater­son was com­mis­sioned into the Essex Regi­ment, before return­ing to France towards the end of the year. At the end of March 1918 Second Lieu­ten­ant Pater­son had deser­ted from 1 bat­talion Essex Regi­ment who were then in reserve trenches near Ypres.

As a res­ult of the cash­ing of a num­ber of forged cheques by an officer of Paterson’s descrip­tion the mil­it­ary police were detailed to try and arrest the offender. The police­men involved were detect­ives from the GHQ Detect­ive Staff. On the even­ing of 3 July, forty year old Ser­geant Har­old Col­lison, DCM, MSM, was on duty near Cal­ais together with a fel­low cor­poral of the force.

The two police­man saw Pater­son walk­ing down the road with a French girl, and real­ising that he resembled the wanted officer approached him on the out­skirts of the vil­lage. Pater­son admit­ted his true iden­tity to the police­men, and asked to be able to speak to the French girl whilst hav­ing a cup of tea in a nearby house. After refresh­ments he main­tained that he would sur­render to their custody.

Ser­geant Col­lison agreed, and later per­mit­ted an exten­sion, although by then the NCOs had been wait­ing for over an hour. As a pre­cau­tion the cor­poral had been keep­ing watch at the front whilst Col­lison main­tained a vigil at the rear.

In fail­ing light Second Lieu­ten­ant Pater­son emerged from the rear of the build­ing, and after an alarmed shout from Col­lison that summoned his col­league, the officer shot the ser­geant three times. Inad­vert­ently the second lieu­ten­ant had also wounded him­self in the groin. In the con­fu­sion as the cor­poral went to fetch assist­ance, Pater­son and the girl escaped.

Col­lison had not been killed out­right, but was mor­tally wounded. Con­sequently, the cor­poral had come to his assistance and had not been able to arrest Pater­son. Ser­geant Col­lison died of his wounds the next day, and the hunt for the miss­ing officer began. Pater­son remained at liberty for over two weeks until arres­ted by the French police at St Omer. When brought to trial he faced charges of both murder and desertion.

The Gen­eral Court Mar­tial panel only con­sidered the murder charge, return­ing a ver­dict of guilty. In his exam­in­a­tion of the pro­ceed­ings Judge Babing­ton con­cluded that much still remains undis­closed about the case of Second Lieu­ten­ant Pater­son. Yet whilst there is no evid­ence to sup­port the hypo­thesis, it is just pos­sible, that with the officer’s back­ground as a West Africa trader, that he might have been involved in drug traf­fick­ing. Such an explan­a­tion might account for the need for him to spend so long straight­en­ing out his affairs with the French girl prior to the shoot­ing incident.

Pater­son was executed at Boulogne, at 6.27am, on 24th Septem­ber 1918, being one of only three Brit­ish officers executed dur­ing the Great War. After the murder of Sgt Col­lison, a Court of Enquiry was held, where its Pres­id­ent, Bri­gadier Gen­eral Rad­cliffe con­firmed how Col­lison was killed, and stated he con­sidered Col­lison partly to blame for his death in not arrest­ing Pater­son when he first came across him. Harry was bur­ied at Les Baraques Mil­it­ary Cemetery, Sangatte.

With recent peti­tion­ing of the Gov­ern­ment to par­don those ‘shot at dawn’, John Pater­son has received a par­don from the MOD under sec­tion 359 of the Armed Forces Act 2006, which cleared him of deser­tion, but does not over­turn the con­vic­tion for murder, for which he received the death penalty.

Mentioned in "Blindfold and Alone - British Military Executions in the Great War" Cathryn Corns & Johan Hughes-Wilson

Sources and References

• http://redcarobserver.co.uk/tale-remembrance/