GAZETTE & HERALD: RESEARCHER John Belcher has discovered that the father of Victor Fox who was shot at dawn for desertion during the First World War signed up himself when he learned his son had been killed at the front.

Mr Belcher, of Queens Crescent, Chippenham, read the story about Joseph Stanley Victor Fox in the Gazette last week, concerning the campaign by the organisation Shot At Dawn to win Mr Fox and others like him a posthumous pardon.

Mr Fox was attached to 3 Division Cyclists Company when he was separated from his comrades. He was tried for desertion during April 1915 and executed on April 20, 1915.

Mr Belcher carried out some research into the names on the war memorial in Upper Market Place, Chippenham, and found a report of Mr Fox's death in the Wiltshire Times for April 23 1915.

Victor Fox was only 20 when he died, and grew up at 45 The Causeway in Chippenham. The article says that on Thursday morning probably April 22 Charles and Harriet Fox received information that their son, Victor, of the Wiltshire Regiment had been killed at the front.

Mr Fox senior decided that to avenge his son's death he should join Kitchener's Army.

"Fox proved himself a plucky lad. He enlisted in the Gloucester Regiment. When war broke out he again joined up and was in France for some time," the article said.

Although Victor Fox's name is included on the war memorial, Mr Belcher said he found it hard to believe the parents found out about his death just two days after the execution from a comrade rather than the War Office.

"I think the father's real reason for joining up was not so much to avenge the death but to cover up the shame," he said.

"In the case of Fox, I think that the town council was very sympathetic and knew the real reason for his death but decided that he was a casualty of the war and listed his name.

"The list of killed was not kept accurately. I have come across a number of names of men who should be commemorated on the memorial but aren't. I have managed to get an unmarked grave in the town cemetery recognised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a war grave and marked with a headstone."