Touched by a tragic first world war tale | Brief letters

Shot at dawn | Emergency alerts at evensong | A message to Airstrip One | Ofsted's inadequate' | Jack Nicholson in Reds

Alexandra Pearce-Broomhead's piece (Country diary, 24 April) is probably the most emotionally charged article I've seen in over 40 years of reading the Guardian. I have sons the same age as these young men who were shot for supposed crimes such as desertion" and cowardice" in the first world war. May my children never have to go through what these young men did.
Rob Turnbull
Hexham, Northumberland

The government's emergency alert came for me as I was listening to choral evensong on BBC Radio 3 (UK emergency alert test: Three looking into why users failed to get text, 23 April). The appointed psalms for the day did not, sadly, include 19:4, Their sound has gone out..." - but the choir did at least sing Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth" (Psalm 100:1).
Fr Alec Mitchell
Holyhead, Anglesey