It commemorates the 306 British Army and Commonwealth soldiers executed after courts-martial for desertion and other capital offences during World War I.

[5] Of the 200,000 or so men court-martialed during the First World War, 20,000 were found guilty of offences carrying the death penalty.

[1][3] Another side to this form of justice is the lasting emotional pain caused to those who were in the firing squads, shooting those found guilty.

[1] The memorial portrays a young British soldier blindfolded and tied to a stake, ready to be shot by a firing squad.

The memorial was modelled on the likeness of 17-year-old Private Herbert Burden, who lied about his age to enlist in the armed forces and was later shot for desertion.