Private Frank Hughes, born Croydon, Southland 1888 - British War Medal, Victory Medal, New Zealand Certificate of Honour now awarded http://www.archives.govt.nz/digitalarchive/archives:16986 In Memory of Private FRANK HUGHES 24/2008, 2nd Bn., Canterbury Regiment, N.Z.E.F. who died on 25 August 1916 Son of Mr. John Hughes, of 209, Crinan St., Invercargill, New Zealand. Remembered with honour HALLENCOURT COMMUNAL CEMETERY http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/data...x?OriginalID=18109&SearchID=1275030&Ordinal=1 Private Frank Hughes - NZEF – EXECUTED - 25 AUGUST 1916 Letter from Leslie KENNY to his niece in New Zealand – dated 28 August 1916. from the Taranaki Daily News 5 October 1992. "In this little village on the Somme a few days ago a very sad incident occurred when the sentence of death by shooting was executed on a boy of our Canterbury Regiment, Private HUGHES. God alone knows whether he merited his sentence (rumour says no) but it seems regrettable that a man who has volunteered of his own free will, when once ensnared in the military mesh, should have to submit to such barbarous methods of punishment. A visit to the cemetery revealed an unmarked grave. Poor devil. Even his dead body disgraced. One rather pitiful tribute of the kindness of the French womenfolk was a bunch of freshly cut flowers placed on the mound. The place of execution was in an orchard just opposite the cemetery and the bullet-scarred tree told its own mute story. The execution made a great impression on the civilians who rightly consider this boy a victim of too rigid and brutal discipline. One thing certain, his grave will always be tended and well kept by these sympathetic strangers for whom he came to fight". http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sooty/hughes.html
