Hi, I’ve just come across the digitised service papers of the above described who was one of 3 men (British Soldier & British Sailor) executed for the Murder of a Pte MacGillivray, Canadian Army, in Rome 1st November 1944. All the accused and the deceased were deserters living in Rome at the time of the offence. Pringle was the only Canadian serviceman to be executed during WW2. It’s quite a big file - 1001 pages - but may be of interest to some members. Summary of court martial evidence starts P644 - includes post mortem photos.. Internet searches mention Canadian authors published books on the matter in 1958 and 2002. See this thread from 2014 started by Canuck The Secret Execution Of Private Pringle http://collectionscanada.ca/obj/001056/f2/p/sww-26845-pringle-harold_joseph-c5292.pdf Steve
Clark's book is a must read on this. A Keen Soldier: The Execution of Second World War Private Harold Pringle by Andrew Clark The victim, F55044 Pte John Norman MacGillivray has one of the longest disciplinary records I've ever seen. One of the documents in his service file has the cause of death as "Died accidentally (Homicide)"
Hi TD, Well spotted. Typo corrected. I did think to myself “deceased” was a superfluous word so I’m glad you appear to agree with me Steve