Deserters on the Home Front

This talk by Andrea Hetherington was delivered 'live' to an online audience. In this presentation Andrea will tell the story of deserters who disappeared from camps and barracks within Great Britain - something which happened at an alarming rate. She will explore their motivations and survival strategies and looking at the punishments incurred both by the soldiers themselves and by those who sheltered them from arrest.

Whilst the story of the deserters who were shot at dawn then pardoned nearly a century later has often been told, these 300 or so soldiers represent a tiny proportion of deserters from the British and Dominion forces, so this is a useful reminder of the 'untold story' of those who deserted even before they arrived in France.