There was no conscription in Britain at the beginning of the First World War. However, by the end of 1915, 528,272 men had been either killed, wounded, or were missing in action. In response, the government introduced The Military Service Act. It became law on 27 January 1916 and all unmarried men aged 18-41 were automatically enlisted. In May 1916 conscription was widened to include married men.
Although many opposed conscription, few actively resisted. However, a significant number of conscientious objectors came from South London; a search of Cyril Pearce’s Register identifies 21 in Southwark, 46 in Bermondsey and 147 in Camberwell, Peckham and Dulwich.
The No Conscription Fellowship (NCF)
The No Conscription Fellowship was founded on 27 November 1914 and was led by the ethical socialist Clifford Allen. He believed conscription violated the most important liberal principle: “the free right of every man to decide for himself the issue of life and death.” The NCF campaigned against the introduction of conscription and later helped men who resisted. Half of its 12,000 members were imprisoned during the war. Women, such as the suffrage and anti-war campaigner Alice Wheeldon, ensured the organisation survived when many of its male members were in prison.
The NCF had a significant presence in South London. The Dulwich branch was particularly active, and its Secretary, Arthur Creech Jones, was leader of the anti-war activity in South London. He was sentenced to three years in prison in September 1916 for resisting conscription. During his imprisonment his cousin, Florence Tidman, took over as Secretary.
Military Service Tribunals
Military Service Tribunals were introduced in February 1916 to process claims for exemption, including on the grounds of conscientious objection. Exemption could be absolute, conditional or temporary. Conditional exemption meant that the objector took alternative service in the army or did work of “national importance”. However, about 1200 conscientious objectors refused to apply for exemption because they disagreed with the process.
One such objector was Eddy Jope of 86 Crofton Road, Peckham, and a member of Dulwich NCF. He was arrested for failing to report for service and brought before the magistrate in July 1916. Jope declined to confirm any details about himself, stating “he did not think the onus was upon him to prove he was a conscientious objector”. He was fined £5 which was to be taken from his army pay and then handed over to a military escort.
Imprisonment
Many COs were imprisoned and served their time in civilian prisons including Wandsworth, Wormwood Scrubs, Pentonville, Winchester, Maidstone and Walton Prison in Liverpool. Some absolutists served many imprisonments under what was known as the “cat and mouse” procedure. At the end of a prison sentence an objector was sent back into the army; after disobeying orders he would be court-martialled and sent back to prison. Eighty-one men died as a result of their treatment in the army, prisons or work centres.
Dr Alfred Salter was Chair of the Bermondsey Labour Party and a member of the NCF. He campaigned for the better treatment and release of COs, including three imprisoned Bermondsey men who, after refusing to put on khaki uniforms, were denied clothes and food. After the war, Salter and his wife Ada gave the NCF a house they owned in Kent for the use of COs who had suffered physically and mentally in prison and needed time to recover.
Labour Camps
Labour camps were set up to clear the prisons of conscientious objectors. At Dyce Quarry in Aberdeen, 250 men were housed in tents and worked for 10 hours per day breaking granite. Within two weeks of the camp’s opening in August 1916, one man had died from pneumonia. The men established a camp committee to demand better treatment. The committee members included Eddy Jope from Peckham and William Boxall from Bermondsey. An enquiry was set up and an investigation committee ordered that the men be moved into barns and provided with better food and clothing. The camp was closed at the end of October 1916.
Work of National Importance
6,500 COs were relieved from military service provided they did work of “national importance”. Some Trades Councils sought to provide work for COs. Camberwell Trades Council founded a bakery in 1915. Officially, it was established to increase the distribution of bread to the local working class; unofficially it served to provide jobs for conscientious objectors. Although the project collapsed by the end of the year, it was incorporated into a similar scheme run by Bermondsey Trades Council. The Independent Labour Party (ILP) built a new bakery on the site of a former working men’s club, which was opened by Keir Hardie and Ramsey MacDonald on 4 July 1914. During the war it made donations to the anti-war movement and found jobs for conscientious objectors.
Legacy
One conscientious objector, George Dutch, later recalled “we proved that any decent modern government could not coerce man’s conscience… we started a movement which means that no war can be fought in the future without conscientious objection coming up.” It was largely the courage and determination of the First World War objectors that led the government to take a more understanding approach during the Second World War. Although COs were ridiculed, criticised, sacked from their jobs and accused of being traitors, and some even went to prison, they were not treated as brutally as they had been in the First World War.
By Carole Wingett, a U3A Shared Learning Project researcher for the Citizens Project.
Bibliography
J.P Taylor, Against the Tide. War Resisters in South London 1914-1918, March 2017, https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Against-the-Tide.pdf
Amelia Burr, “Will we Remember our Men of Conscience, Those who Refused to Fight in the First World War?” Southwark News, 28 January 2016
Rare Doings in Camberwell
Hayes People’s History
London Borough of Lewisham in the First World War, Local History Archives
Ann Kramer, Conchies: Conscientious Objectors of the First World War (Franklin Watts, 2013)
Gerard De Groot, Back in Blighty: The British at Home in World War One (Vintage 2014)
