A Keighley soldier who was shot for desertion in World War I is to be given a lasting memorial.

Private Henry MacDonald is to be remembered as part of a memorial in Staffordshire, alongside 305 fellow soldiers shot for desertion.

A wooden post bearing Pte MacDonald's name will be placed in the National Memorial Arboretum, near Lichfield.

The memorial - to be unveiled in July - will feature an 8ft 6ins bronze statue of a fallen soldier flanked by 306 posts in a semi-circle, each bearing a plaque.

Pte MacDonald's grandson Harry MacDonald, who lives in Hampshire, said: "I think it will be a very nice tribute, especially in the Millennium year, and anything that brings a good light on his memory should be welcomed.

"But I'm disappointed that the government or the royal family didn't make the gesture for the Millennium.

"There are one or two things I want to visit and I have still to go to my grandfather's grave in France, but I would like to see the memorial one day."

The bronze statue has been crafted by Andy Decomyn, a student at the University of Central England in Birmingham who was moved to create the piece after watching the BBC's Everyman programme about deserters during the war.

Pte MacDonald was a 32-year-old veteran of Gallipoli and the Somme where he was buried alive when a German shell exploded near his trench.

He was posted back to the front line after a short stay in hospital but deserted in September 1916 and tried to return to Keighley, concerned about the condition of his pregnant wife.

He was arrested in France and on November 4 was shot at dawn.

After pressure from Keighley people and local councillors, his name was added to the town's roll of honour in January 1998.

John Hipkin is a member of Newcastle-based Shot at Dawn, a group which has campaigned for a government pardon for the 306 soldiers.

He said: "When Labour was in opposition it voted in favour of pardons for the 306 but since it got into power it has gone back on that promise and the Ministry of Defence shows no sign of backing down.

"Many of these soldiers were as young as 16 and 17 when they were executed and if anyone is entitled to demand pardons it is those soldiers who have survived the war."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said that the Government had not introduced pardons for the soldiers shot for cowardice, despite a nationwide campaign over recent years.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.