DEFENCE secretary Des Browne's decision to grant posthumous pardons to 306 British soldiers shot after being accused of cowardice or desertion during the First World War has been greeted with jubilation by a Gwent relative of an executed man.

Private Bernard McGeehan, 30, of the King's Liverpool Regiment, survived the battle of Guillemont in August, 1916, in which more than half his battalion was killed.

Despite there being some suggestion that McGeehan had been ordered to remain behind the lines he was listed as missing for six days before turning up shell-shocked without rifle or equipment.

Mr John McGeehan, of Wainfelin, Pontypool, said he was elated' that the name of his great-uncle had been cleared.

"It is tremendous news and an act of humanity on the part of defence minister Des Browne," said Mr McGeehan, who is also Gwent organiser for the Shot at Dawn Campaign.

"A stigma which has hung over the family for 90 years has finally been lifted.

"It is a marvellous day for me and for hundreds of other families affected by the sometimes arbitrary decisions of that period.

"The Royal British Legion has been behind us. Des Browne has done something that the former defence minister Geoff Hoon felt unable to do."

Mr McGeehan, who is originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, says that through the Shot At Dawn Campiagn he will now ask that the names of three soldiers of the South Wales Borderers who faced the firing squad should have their names entered on the roll of honour at Brecon Catheral.

The three are Privates A O'Neill and Glynn Jones from Neath and Private T H Rigby from Rhyl but who was originally from Tredegar where his father is thought to have been a travelling chemist.

"And I shall also be pressing for Bernard's name to be included on the war memorial at Derry.

"These 306 were combatants who are buried alongside their comrades in Commonwealth War Grave Commission cemeteries.

"They repaid whatever debt they may have owed the instant the firing squad's triggers were pulled."

Over 3,000 British soldiers out of an army of seven million were sentenced to death during the period 1914 to 1918, 90 percent of the sentences being commuted.

Of those who were shot, many had committed offences that would have incurred the death sentence in civilian life. For this reason some historians and retired officers are opposed to the blanket pardon.

One of the most contentious cases is that of Sub-Lieutenant Edwin Dyett of Albany Road, Cardiff one of only three officers to be shot.

Dyett - deemed to be an incompetent Royal Naval Division officer - had a disagreement with another officer of the same rank near the front line and turned away to go back to his unit's headquarters for clarification of his orders.

Unaware that his act was being interpreted as desertion and convinced of his innocence and ultimate acquittal, Dyett was unconcernedly playing cards when told that he was to be taken out and shot.