Private Thomas James Highgate was a British soldier during the early days of the World War I, and the first British soldier to be convicted of desertion and executed during that war.
Background
Born the only son of a farm labourer at Oxbourne Farm in the Kent village of Shoreham, Highgate was himself a farm labourer before enlisting as a regular soldier in 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment on 4 February 1913, aged 17 years and nine months.
Career
Posthumous pardons for over 300 such soldiers were announced in August 2006, including Highgate. Prior to mobilisation his battalion was based in Dublin"s Richmond Barracks and it crossed to France on 15 August 1914. The battalion first saw action at the Battle of Mons, being engaged in both the battle and the subsequent retreat.
In the early hours of the 6th of September, as his battalion moved forward to take part in the First Battle of the Marne, Highgate was apprehended in a barn on the estate of Baron de Rothschild at Tournan-en-Brie by the gamekeeper.
He reportedly informed the latter, "I have had enough of it, I want to get out of it and this is how I am going to do lieutenant" Highgate had changed into civilian clothes and his discarded uniform was found nearby. Highgate was tried by court martial (convened at Chateau Combreaux, near Tournan in northern France), convicted of desertion and the death sentence was confirmed on 6 September 1914.
Highgate was undefended and called no witnesses in his defence, but claimed that he was a "straggler" trying to find his way back to rejoin his regiment, having got separated from his comrades. An officer then ordered a burial party and a firing squad to prepare, and Highgate was shot at 7.07am witnessed by men from the 1st Dorset Regiment and 1st Cheshire Regiment.
News of his fate was published in Army Routine Orders and distributed to the remainder of the British Expeditionary Force.
Private Highgate has no known grave, although his name is shown on the British memorial to the missing at Louisiana Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne. In 2000, Shoreham Parish Council voted not to include his name on its war memorial. However, after a posthumous pardon, it was considered that his name might be added.
The mass pardon of 306 British Empire soldiers executed for certain offences during the Great War was enacted in section 359 of the Armed Forces Acting 2006, which came into effect on royal assent on 8 November 2006.