The Northern Echo continues its campaign to persude Tony Blair to pardon more than 300 soldiers executed for cowardice during the First World War. Gavin Englebrecht examines the case of twins who died within days of each other - one at the hands of the Germans, the other shot by his own comrades.

DORIS CONROY grew up wondering why her father and grandmother moved house so often.

Mrs Conroy, 80, said: "Our family was constantly on the move. We always used to joke that my grandmother was trying dodge the rent man.

"Among the streets we lived in Middlesborough were Garnet Street, Linthorpe Road and Leven Street and twice in Newport Road."

It was only 12 years ago that Mrs Conroy learnt the horrible truth. She discovered for the first time - reading an article in The Northern Echo - that her uncle, Private Charles Nicholson, was executed by firing squad in October 1917 for alleged desertion, at the age of 19.

She said: "I realised it must have been because of the shame she felt that she kept on moving. My father, who himself was the sole survivor of a gas attack, never mentioned it."

What made it all the more devastating, said Mrs Conroy, was that her grandmother got the "yellow telegram" informing her of Charles' death only four days after she learnt that his twin brother, John, had been shot by the Germans while going over the top.

Mrs Conroy, who now lives in Glasgow, said her grandmother had a newsagents shop in Newport Road, Middlesbrough.

She said: "She was so distressed by what had happened that she used to give stuff away and went bankrupt."

Pte Nicholson's name was finally added to Middlesbrough's Book of Remembrance in 1999, following an approach from campaigner John Hipkin.

Pte Nicholson, who fought with the Eighth Battalion, the Yorks and Lancashire Regiment

The charge, according to the public records, read: "When on active service, deserting His Majesty's Service in that he at a Camp near Dickebusch, Belgium, at about 4pm on the 25th August 1917, when warned for the trenches and being fully aware that the Battalion was to proceed to the trenches the same night, did absent himself and remain absent, until apprehended by the M.M. Police at Reninghelst, Belgium, at about 11.50 on the same day."

Pte Nicholson denied the charge.

Sergeant T Duffy told the hearing: "At about 4pm on August 25, 1917, my platoon was in a camp at Chateau Segard, near Dickebush, waiting to go up to the trenches.

"Accused is in my platoon and I am platoon sergeant.

"While we were waiting, some enemy planes came over and dropped bombs near us and the men took cover. When the platoon fell in again, the accused was absent. I did not see the accused again till about a fortnight later when he was in the regimental guardroom at Broxeele."

Pte Nicholson, who was not represented, despite being on trial for his life, said: "When the bomb dropped, I got nervous. I can't say anything else."

He was found guilty. The sentence was confirmed by the British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, and "duly carried out" at Quelmes at 6.10am on October 27, 1917. He is buried in a cemetery at St Omer, France.

On October 10, 1917, Pte Nicholson's twin brother, John, of the 2nd Essex Regiment was killed in action at Ypres.

On the headstone of Pte Nicholon's grave, his parents had inscribed: "Loved by all in life, lamented in death."

Of ten brothers, only three had survived the two world wars. In the Second World War, one was killed when his ship was torpedoed and the other drowned.

Mrs Conroy said: "My father was the sole survivor of a gas attack during the First World War. He never recovered. He would spend up to six days in bed at a time when he came home. He had a nervous disability. No one listened. When he complained, doctors at the hospital thought that he was an idiot.

"It is the Government that should be seeking a pardon. These soldiers were murdered by the Government - there is no doubt about it. Their names should be cleared."