Image: Private Harold Pringle. The last Canadian military member to be executed.

The Execution of Private Harold Pringle

If the Canadian public found out, there would be hell to pay. The war had been over for nearly two months, after all, and during World War II, no other Canadian soldier had been convicted of murder and executed. Worse still, this young soldier was maintaining his innocence.

On July 5, 1945, Private Harold Pringle was removed from a dilapidated cell in a war-ravaged castle located in the village of Avellino, Italy. Pringle was paraded to a deserted firing range that was once used by the Mussolini youth wing for target practice, bound to a wooden post, and executed by a Canadian Army firing squad.