Top a_joseph_byers
| 1 | Private Joseph Byers was the first Kitchener volunteer to be executed. |
| 2 | He was 17 and under age when he enlisted in the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers in November 1914, and was sent to France with two weeks training. |
| 3 | By January 1915, his inexperience and the horrors he witnessed caused him to go absent without leave with another private, Andrew Evans. |
| 4 | Byers pleaded guilty, believing that his candour would save him from the death sentence. |
| 5 | Despite being under age, he was given no representation at his trial, and he and Evans faced a firing squad at Locre on February 6. |
| 6 | According to rumours, one of them did not die until the third volley, leading to speculation that the firing squad had fired wide to avoid killing the youth. |