Punishments of Soldiers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 12, 16 September 1908, Page 38

Punishments of Soldiers.

BRUTALITIES WHICH ARE NO LONGER ENDURED.

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F. D. Bone.

The amazing story unfolded in the House of Commons by Mr. Keir Hardie, of a member of the Fife and Forfarshire Yeomanry being degraded and drummed out of eamp, has roused all the old, bad, primeval blood in me, for, like Samuel I’epys, I would run a mile to see a man hanged. The digging up ot records of military punishments has always been (for me) a fascinating pastime, and even the cold shudder of horror at some of the atrocities committed cannot damp the savage lust for more. Without dealing with the horrible, it may perhaps be interesting to touch lightly on some of tile punishments inflicted on soldiers in the armies of England and France during the early days of their formation. ■■Running the gantlope” was a common moile of punishment, and usually took place at guard-mounting, when the prisoner was inarched with bared back between two lines of the regiment facing inwards, and received one cut with a switch from each man as he strode by. In front of him went two men with pikes pointed at his breast to prevent his hurrying. ami behind came two others to prevent a retreat. A major also rode betwemi the lines to see that each man switched in properly. TRANSI -ERRED TO THE NAVY. A curious form of punishment was that of transferring a mutinous soldier to the Navy: "but he was given the choice of undergoing the original punishment awarded, if he preferred it. to the King's

One of the most severe forms of punishment was that of tying a man neck and heels. The criminal sat on the ground when a firelock was put under his hams, and another over his neck, and these were forcibly brought almost together by means of a couple of cartouch-box straps. In this situation, with his chin between his knees, many a man has been kept until he has been rendered physically incapable of rendering further service to the state. A terrible instrument of torture in the French army was that known as the “etrapade,” a machine for hoisting military delinquents, whose hands were tied behind them, and to which the rope was attached. They were then let down with a jerk to within a foot of the ground, and through the weight of their bodies nearly every limb was instantly dislocated. I have read that this torture was formerly in use at Rome for the purpose of correcting disorderly conduct at the opera. Whipping and hanging were, of course, the most common forms of punishment, and the number of lashes awarded, and inflicted were in some cases wholly beyond present day belief. Some of the old order-books of Gibraltar garrison give shorp, sharp examples of these: — All sentinels who do not call out “All’s well” every half-minute shall be punished with 200 iashes. Privates A.B. and C.D. are to be executed to-morrow between ten and eleven o'clock, and Private E.F., of the same regiment, is to receive 200 lashes under the gallows (as the above prisoners are hanging) of the -100 he is sentenced to Private Thomas to receive 1.000 lashes with a eat-o’-nine-tails, the last fifty of which are to be given by the hands of the common hangman: he is afterwards to be drummed out of the garrison with a halter about his neck. Meanwhile to be confined to the bread-and-water room. Margaret Doe. by sentence of a general court-martial, for making a disturbance in her quarters ami cutting the throat of Alexander Stewart, 300 lashes by the drummers—loo every other day at Landport, the Parade, and Waterport : and afterwards, with a rope round her neck, to be drummed out of the garrison.

BOTANY BAY A corporal tried for desertion, was sentenced to serve for the rest of his life in the corps for the protection of Botany Bay. A private, convicted of robbery, was executed with a label on his breast on which was written the word “Plunderer,” the body hanging until sunset. I have read of cases where commanding officers had barrels of brine brought on parade, into which they ordered the drummers to dip the “eat” after every stroke, and then gravely deliver moral lectures to the culprit during the time he was tied to the triangles! The following extracts from a commonplace book dealing with charges and disbursements made by a provost-marshal in Ireland with William 111. will give some idea of executions in the army of that day-— TWO MEN BEING SENTENCED TO DEATH. For extraordinary treats, after the sentence of death of the patients (each one 6/), 12/. Paid unto three servants that did sit with the patients and serve them according to custome, half a crown a day is for two days and nights, 15/. For reading of the sentences, 2/6. To executioner for hanging and taking down (10/ apiece), is together £l. For the ladder, ropes, and bolts, 3/. For the locking and unlocking of each (2/6), 5/. For assisting in tire execution according to the custome for me, 10/. Paid for burving unto the servant (2/6 each), 5/. GAMBLING FOR THEIR LIVES. The custom of letting men gamble for their lives is shown in the following extract: — Having received in arrest, John Gerritse, drummer, and John Wright, soldier, deserters, and remanded until the 13th of February, when the same, by the sentence of the High Council ofWar, and the approbation of the General Ginkell. should have been punished to death; but John Gerritse has got his freedom with diceing under the gallows; but John Wright has been punished with the

rope unto death. For fifty-seven daies’ diet, from the 19th of December to 13th of Februarv, at fid. a day, amounts to £2 7/. N.B.—Charges for execution as before. As to “drumming out,” the procedure was to strip the buttons and distinctive facings from the man’s clothes while he stood on parade, and then march him behind a drummer to the barrack gate, through which he was booted by the drum-major. The last instance of which I have a record took place at Chatham about forty years ago, where the man was received outside the barrack gate by the civil police and conveyed in a cart to Maidstone Gaol, amid the derisive cheers of the populace, in which he took a genial part.