Private Frank Hughes was one of the 28 members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who were sentenced to death, and the first of the five who had their sentence confirmed and were “shot at dawn”.

He was found guilty of deserting and “evading duty in the trenches” by a Field General Court Martial held on 12 August 1916. The sentence was confirmed on 21 August, 1916 by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig.

The long planned main British offensive for 1917, of which Messines was a preliminary step, began on 31 July with Passchendaele as its initial objective. It was planned to break through the strongly fortified German defences enclosing the Ypres salient using the Fifth Army.