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An Otago soldier executed  for mutiny is to be  remembered  this year at the Shot at Dawn Memorial in England.

Jack Braithwaite, of Dunedin, volunteered for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in May 1915.

He served in Egypt and was later sent to France in April 1916.

While serving in France, he fell foul of the military authorities on a number of occasions, losing his rank as lance corporal in May 1916.

He went absent without leave, served at the front for a short time, and was later imprisoned after again leaving his unit, receiving further terms in military prison after seeking to escape.

His attempt to defuse an incident involving a group of Australian and New Zealand prisoners and a military policeman at a military prison resulted in his being charged with mutiny.

British military leader General Sir Douglas Haig confirmed the court-martial sentence, and he was executed on October 29, 1916 at Rouen.

He was one of at least 16 children of bookseller Joseph Braithwaite, who was mayor of Dunedin in 1905, and he was one of six sons from the family to die in World War 1.

The Shot at Dawn Memorial, created in 2000, is a monument at the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas, in Staffordshire, England.

There, 306 wooden posts  remember the British Army and Commonwealth soldiers executed for desertion and other  offences during World War 1.

Posts for Mr Braithwaite and two other "mutineers" — Scottish Gunner William Lewis and Welsh Corporal Jesse Short — will be added to the Shot at Dawn monument at a ceremony on October 29.

The trio were among the 309 soldiers granted formal pardons by the British Ministry of Defence in 2006, after a campaign for those executed by their own side, often after hurried and unsatisfactory courts martial.

The campaign battled for them to be declared victims of World War 1, because many of those shot were suffering from shell shock.

Because of the efforts of many concerned people, including historians and politicians, particularly former Invercargill MP Mark Peck, Mr Braithwaite and four other New Zealand servicemen who were executed during World War 1 were pardoned by the New Zealand Parliament in September 2000.

Brigadier Evan Williams, of New Zealand, will attend the ceremony on October 29, along with relatives of Mr Braithwaite, including his nephew David Braithwaite.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz