Thomas W. Watts, born at Houghton-Le -Spring, was shot for desertion with a Private Walter Neave who had enlisted in the 9th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, he had served at Gallipoli, also was wounded at Hebuterne during the battle of the Somme. It was 1917 before he was fit enough to serve, but on the 26th July he deserted, already under a suspended death sentence.
Shot at Dawn; Putkowski and Sykes; 1989; Leo Cooper; ISBN 0 85052 295 1, Page 189.
Blindford and Alone: British Military Executions in the Great War; Corns and Hughes-Wilson; 2001; Cassell; 0 304 36449 5. Page 496.
