n.
A court-martial held for the summary trial of an offense committed during military operations.
[So called because it was sometimes held around a drumhead.]
drumhead court-martial
| Dictionary: drumhead court-martial |
n.
A court-martial held for the summary trial of an offense committed during military operations.
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| WordNet: drumhead court-martial |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
a military court convened to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action
| Wikipedia: Drumhead court-martial |
A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term is said to originate from the use of a drumhead as an improvised writing table[1][2], altar for religious services [3][4] and a traditional gathering point for a regiment for orders [5] or decisions. The earliest recorded usage is in an English memoir of the Peninsular War.[6] The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice, with an implied lack of judicial impartiality, as noted in the transcripts of the trial at Nuremberg of Josef Bühler.[7] According to Bryant, such courts-martial have ordered lashings or hangings to punish soldiers (and their officers) who were cowardly, disobedient – or conversely, acted rashly; and especially as a discouragement to drunkenness.[8]
See also
References
- ^ Definition from Brewer's Dictionary
- ^ An example of an illustration from the Thirty Years War showing a drum used as a table at military executions: [1]
- ^ http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/letters/Scots-soldiers-parade-streets-Canterbury/article-538473-detail/article.html parade and drumhead service
- ^ http://www.maybole.org/Community/organisations/british/maybole_branch_rbl_scotland.htm Drumhead Service at Culzean Castle
- ^ http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Templates/LargeImageTemplate.aspx?img=/NR/rdonlyres/CB6226B7-22D6-4B0C-9FF7-008FF21A3916/0/CCT08127OUTUNC0210.jpg Her Majesty the Queen presents the RAF with the new colour at a Drumhead service, RAF Fairford. [Photo: Cpl Scott Robertson RAF]
- ^ 'Court martial, n. 1.b. drumhead court-martial', Oxford English Dictionary Online (2009), citing Sir Charles Shaw, Personal memoirs and correspondence, comprising a narrative of the war ... in Portugal and Spain (1837), II, 449.
- ^ Transcript at tne Nizkor project
- ^ Years of Victory (1802-1812), Arthur Bryant, 1944
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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