Adrian Weale
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Adrian Weale
In the 20th century only four British citizens were convicted of the ancient crime of High Treason and only two of these—Roger Casement and John Amery—suffered what was, until 1998, the only penalty allowed by the law: execution.
During the First World War, Casement, a retired British consular official knighted by King Edward VII for his humanitarian work in Africa and South America, attempted to recruit a brigade of Irish prisoners of war to liberate Ireland after German victory on the Western front. In the Second World War, Amery, the son of Churchill’s Secretary of State for India, tried to recruit a legion of British soldiers into the Waffen-SS to fight against Bolshevism on the Eastern front. But even a cursory examination of their crimes reveals both men to have been inept and ineffectual traitors, more of a burden to their German sponsors than an asset.
By coincidence, both renegade units attracted the same miserable number of recruits—57—and neither was used in the role for which it was intended. Instead, both men fell into British hands, were tried and executed. In…
