He was just a boy Yes, just 16 years of age But he wanted to follow the colors Just to prove that he was brave But he was just a man child A rifle in his hand Yes the rifle gave him manhood But the mind was still a childs In Flanders field he learned the truth Of the transition to a man not youth But the mind was left behind Wounded by a shell by enemy fire And all around him men did die His courage was spent and gone Scared, in pain His shell shocked scrambled brain He wandered from the field In tears, in fear he cried out for his mum Battered in body, battered in mind The boy could take no more Three days later they found him Hiding in a farm At rifle point they took him With biting ropes around his arms Poperinge was the place the courts martial Then took place The boy just stood there silent Shaking, ashen faced The fateful words were spoken All cowards have to die 'Thus before the firing squad You must say your last goodbye And so on that fateful morning In the stable yard The young boy in tears was tied To the post by previous bullets scared They pinned a white card upon his breast For the firing squad to see The command to fire was given And a sixteen year old boy Met his final destiny
This actually happened, the British army executed a sixteen year old boy for cowardice as an example to others.