MUTINY AT SALERNO

Early day motion 211, tabled 16 December 1999 by Anne Begg (Labour). Signed by 107 members.

That this House calls on the Government to grant a free pardon to the 191 British servicemen, mainly from the Highland and Tyne Tees Divisions, who had previously covered themselves in glory fighting in the desert in North Africa, who were court martialled in 1943 for refusing to obey an order to join the 46th Division at Salerno in Italy, especially in light of the recent BBC2 Timewatch documentary, A Very British Mutiny, and the conclusions reached by the historian Saul David in his book, Mutiny at Salerno, as it is now clear that the men were misled into believing that they were to join their own units and they had been sent to Salerno as a result of an administrative error.

Signatures by party: Labour 84, Liberal Democrat 10, Labour/Co-operative 6, Plaid Cymru 2, Scottish National Party 2, Independent 1, UKUP 1, UUP 1.