Irish WW1 Execution Statistics

Percentages of Recruitments and Condemnations in the British army 1914-20

Recruitment figures indicate that 134,202 soldiers were from Ireland with 112,223 recruited from  New Zealand. There were 239 condemnations to death in Irish units compared to 23 in New Zealand units. Despite roughly comparable numbers of troops being recruited in Ireland and New Zealand, there were more than ten times as many death sentences passed on Irish troops. Doctor Gerard Oram.

Irish Born British Soldiers Executed by the British army during the First World War

In 1998 Gerard Oram published the first truly analytical study of British military death sentences during the First World War. Amongst his findings, Dr Oram detected a statistical anomaly indicating that Irish troops were as much as four times more likely to be condemned to death by a British court-martial than were troops from other parts of the British Isles and the Dominions. The main points relating to Irish troops in Dr Oram’s book, Worthless Men: race, eugenics and the death penalty in the British army during the First World War (Francis Boutle Publishers, London, 1998), are as follows:

• Whilst comprising a mere 2 % of the total British (and Empire) army, Irish troops accounted for 8 % of all death sentences and a similar proportion of executions. No other national group experienced such a disparity and in most cases there was almost parity between the two figures (see table above).

• Put another way, 1 in 50 recruits were Irish, but more than 1 in every 13 of those condemned were Irish (roughly four times higher than other troops).

• According to official statistics, 134,202 men were recruited in Ireland. The closest to this figure for the purpose of comparison is New Zealand where 112,223 men were enlisted. Yet there were 239 condemnations in Irish units and only 23 in New Zealand units even though it is widely accepted that discipline in the New Zealand formations was especially harsh.

• Similarly, the number of executions of Irish troops can be compared with the Canadian force (24 and 25 respectively). Yet Canadian recruitment (464,391) was roughly three-and-a-half times that of the Irish.

• Irish troops were more likely to be condemned than other ‘British’ troops serving alongside them in the same divisions. There were five such infantry divisions with Irish and other ‘British’ battalions (Guards, 4th, 7th, 8th, & 29th Divisions) and in every case it appears that condemnations were more common in the Irish battalions. Taken as a whole, the average number of condemnations in non-Irish battalions of these five divisions was four per battalion. But this figure rises to seven for Irish battalions.

• In those mixed divisions (all regular army) men in Irish units were more likely to have their sentences carried our (18% as oppossed to 11%).

• Only five men in the prestigous Guards division were executed. Three were Irish-amounting to almost two thirds of the total. This despite the Irish contingent being less than a sixth of the division (2 battalions out of 13).

Doctor Gerard Oram;

(Doctor Oram is a lecturer in Modern European History at the Open University in Wales and Research Fellow at the Centre for First World War Studies, University of Birmingham. He has lectured extensively on executions in the British Army during the First World War and written various studies on the subject, including: - Worthless Men Race and Eugenics in the British Army 1914-1919 (1998) ; - Military Law 1868 – 1918. (1996) ; - Death Sentences passed by Military Courts of the British Army 1914 - 1924 (1998) ; - Military Executions during World War One (Palgrave - 2003)

Officers Pardoned WW1