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1 October 1917 : Private Ernest Mackness

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Ernest lost his life on 1 October 1917 not in combat, but in front of a firing squad. Mackness, a regular soldier aged 25, was under a suspended death sentence when he went absent on 22 August 1917 as his battalion moved into trenches at Nieuport. No doubt it was a combination of his existing suspended sentence and the fact that his battalion wa…