Opposing World War One: Courage and Conscience

An information briefing aboutconscientious objection and peace activism in the First World War

Published 2013 by Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, Peace Pledge Union, Quaker Peace and Social Witness,Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

‘How can we make sure that the courageof men and women who campaigned toprevent the First World War, whoresisted the jingoism, and who, asconscientious objectors, refusedconscription, is given proper attentionduring the First World War centenarycommemorations?’

This brief guide is one response to thatquestion and it has been compiled by agroup of British peace organisations: theFellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), PaxChristi, Peace Pledge Union (PPU), QuakerPeace and Social Witness (QPSW),Women’s International League for Peaceand Freedom (WILPF).

The FOR and WILPF were even founded inresponse to that war, and will be celebratingtheir own centenaries in 2014 and 2015respectively. 2016 will be a significantanniversary for Britain as one of the firstcountries to enact any kind of legalprovision for conscientious objectors - aright which has since been endorsed by theUnited Nations but is still not recognised inmany countries.

Some of the stories of the peace activists ofthe First World War are dramatic andpowerful. They include:

* The intrepid determination of 1200spirited women from 12 countries whoovercame multiple obstacles to gather inThe Hague in 1915, as war raged. Theydrew up 20 proposals for stopping thewar by a negotiated peace - and tookthese personally to world leaders.

* The death-defying courage ofconscientious objectors, such as thegroup imprisoned in Richmond Castle,Yorkshire, who believed they were goingto be executed, and scrawled heart-rending messages on their cell wallswhich are still visible there today.

We hope that this information guide willinspire journalists, programme-makers,event and exhibition organisers, to includein their centenary plans some of this hiddenhistory about conscientious objection andpeace movement opposition to the FirstWorld War. It’s an aspect of our Britishheritage that deserves to be uncovered,remembered and honoured.

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Opposing World War One: Courage and Conscience

An information briefing about conscientious objection and peace activism in the First World War

Introduction

Active opposition to the First World War tookmany forms in British society: public meetingsand demonstrations - some of these leading topitched battles - personal protest andconscientious objection, mutinies and tradeunion strikes, and of course artistic expressionin painting, poetry and literature.

Nevertheless, the opponents were faroutnumbered by enthusiasts for the war. By1916 there were still more men volunteeringthan could be equipped, according toA.J.P.Taylor, but politicians wishing to give theimpression that they were helping the war effortdecided that conscription was the way todemonstrate this.

The Military Service Bill (the proposal inparliament to make a new law introducingconscription) was debated in the House ofCommons in January 1916. The government,led by the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith,knew the Bill would be very controversial andthat there would be fierce opposition toconscription from some MPs - particularly

Quaker MPs and members of the IndependentLabour Party.

To deal with the expected opposition toconscription, the government had included asection in the Military Service Bill known as the‘conscience clause’. This allowed peopleexemption from conscription ‘on the ground of aconscientious objection to the undertaking ofcombatant service’. The government knew there

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The Military Service Act and Opponents of the First World War 2

Harold Bing’s story 4

Catherine Marshall’s story 5

Some others who said ‘no’ to the First World War 6

Peace Organisations Active in the First World War 8The No-Conscription Fellowship 8The Women’s International Congress in The Hague and

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom 9The Origins of the Fellowship of Reconciliation 10Friends Ambulance Unit 11The Guild of the Pope’s Peace 12

Centenary Peace Events 12

Places to see 12

Sources of further information 13

Contents

THE MILITARY SERVICE ACT AND OPPONENTS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Anti-war meeting 1917 (photo: PPU)

would also be strong opposition to the conscienceclause from a large number of MPs.

MPs debated long and hard about which types ofconscientious objector the new law wouldrecognise. On the day of the final vote on theMilitary Service Bill there was great tension inparliament. Everyone knew the seriousness of theproposed new law and knew what a dramaticchange it would be for Britain (Ireland was notincluded in the Bill). Out of 630 MPs in theHouse of Commons at the time 165 of them werealready in the army or navy and most of thosehad come wearing their military uniform. Only36 MPs opposed the Military Service Bill and so,on 27 January 1916, the Bill received the RoyalAssent and became the law of the land.

The new law would come into operation on 3February 1916 and from 2 March all unmarriedmen aged 18-41 would be ‘deemed to haveenlisted’ in the army. In just a few monthsconscription would be extended to married menalso.

Over 16,000 men claimed exemption frommilitary service. They were required to attend atribunal (an interviewing panel with legalauthority) to have the sincerity of their claimsassessed.

Conscientious objectors were usually offerednon-combatant work in the army, or civilian work(for example, working on the land) that wasuseful to a country at war. Men who turned down

these alternatives, and men who had not evenbeen offered them but still refused call-up, werethen arrested and sent to military barracks. Herethey faced court martial, like any soldier whodisobeyed orders - as indeed the COs did,refusing to wear uniform or respond to anycommands. The court martial would give aprison sentence, to be served in a civilian prison.When the CO had finished his time in prison, hewould be called up again a day after his releaseand arrested when he failed to obey: this wasknown as the ‘cat and mouse’ process. It was allvery tough on the men who endured it. Morethan eighty COs died in prison or as a result oftheir experience there. Some became physicallyor mentally ill, and of these some never fullyrecovered.

In May 1916 about 50 COs being held atHarwich, Seaford and Richmond Castlewere sent to France, and threatened withthe death penalty. On the ‘Front Line’they could be court-martialled andexecuted for disobeying orders.

They were transported in secret by nightto Southampton, but one of them managedto drop a note from the train as theycrossed London. This was picked up andsomehow the information reached the No-Conscription Fellowship (and theirfamilies) that they were on their way to

France. Once there they remained defiant,despite the intimidation and brutal

treatment - including in some cases fieldpunishment such as being ‘crucified’ for severalhours on a wooden frame or barbed wire. InJune 1916 they were court-martialled andsentenced to be shot, though this wasimmediately commuted to ten years penalservitude. It meant being sent back to England.

COs faced the unpleasant and severeconsequences of their actions with responses asvaried as themselves. Their only backing camefrom peace organisations and a small group ofMembers of Parliament, and above all from thesustained vigilance of the No-ConscriptionFellowship.

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CO stone-breakers at Dyce Quarry near Aberdeen (photo: PPU)

Many protested against war in 1914. Somewere socialists, who believed that theworking men of the world should unite, notobey orders to kill each other. Somebelonged to religious groups which forbadetaking human life, while some thought thisparticular war was wrong. Thousands ofthese varied protesters gathered in London’sTrafalgar Square on August 2 to make theiranti-war voices heard.

A 16-year old called Harold Bing was there. Hehad walked 11 miles from his home inCroydon. ‘It was thrilling,’ he said. Harold andhis father were both pacifists (his father hadopposed the Boer War), and they both joinedthe No-Conscription Fellowship. Harold helpedto distribute NCF leaflets from house to house;on one occasion he was chased by a hostilehouseholder wielding a heavy stick.

After conscription was introduced in 1916,Harold went before his tribunal. He was notthought to qualify for exemption. ‘18? - you’retoo young to have a conscience,’ said thechairman - but not too young to be sent to war.He was arrested but refused to regard himselfas a soldier, or obey military orders and wascourt-martialled. The sentence: six months hardlabour. In the end Harold spent nearly threeyears in prison.

During his time in prison Harold helped to getvegetarian food provided by the prison kitchen,and additional nourishment (a mug of cocoa)supplied for men who worked overtime. Healso made friends with a few warders - helpingthe daughter of one of them with her mathshomework.

Harold was also one of the men who withothers created a prison magazine: written onthin brown sheets of toilet paper using the bluntend of a needle and the ink supplied formonthly letters home. Just the one copy waspassed secretly from one prisoner to another. InHarold’s prison this was called ‘The WinchesterWhisperer’. The idea was widely copied inother prisons.

Harold Bing left prison with his sight damagedby years of stitching mailbags in dim light, butalso having taught himself German and French.He wanted to teach, but many advertisementsfor teachers said ‘No CO need apply’. ‘And ifyou did apply, you got turned down as soon asthey knew you were a pacifist.’ Eventually hefound a sympathetic headmaster who waswilling to employ him. As well as teaching,Harold worked as a peace campaigner and amember of the Peace Pledge Union. He died in1975.

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HAROLD BING’S STORY

Harold Bing (photo: PPU)

Catherine E. Marshall (1880-1962) was amiddle class feminist, active in Liberalpolitics, and in the National Union ofWomen’s Suffrage Society (NUWSS), thelargest organisation working for votes forwomen in late Victorian and EdwardianBritain. She moved towards socialist andpacifist views through her involvement withthe British and international suffragemovement.

The NUWSS split over the issue of support forthe war, with Catherine Marshall beingamongst the group who resigned from theNUWSS and organised an international peacecongress of women at The Hague in 1915.This resulted in the creation of the Women’sInternational League for Peace and Freedom(WILPF or WIL).

Catherine Marshall chaired the meeting inWestminster Central Hall, London, on 11 May1915 to receive the Report on the Congress ofWomen by Jane Addams (American), Dr AlettaJacobs (Dutch) and Signora Rosa Genoni(Italian). These Congress delegates expressedtheir appreciation of the vigorous work done bythe British Committee of the Women’sInternational Congress and especially CatherineMarshall, the Hon. Secretary.

Catherine got more and more involved with thework of the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF)which, following the introduction of militaryconscription in 1916, was engaged insupporting COs at tribunals and in prison. Shethought that the NCF offered ‘a positive way tooppose the killing’. When Clifford Allen wasimprisoned she became the acting Hon.Secretary, and later ‘calculated that sofrequently had she flouted the law to aid COs,she was liable for 2,000 years in prison’.

An astute political lobbyist, she plantedquestions in the House of Commons, and wasso efficient at record-keeping that the WarOffice used to ring her to find out in whichcamp particular COs were confined.

Catherine Marshall articulated her personalcommitment to peace in a paper entitledWomen and War (1915) for a Londonconference on religious aspects of the women’smovement and of peace. Unfortunately shewas ill and unable to deliver it. In the papershe stated ‘...all the horrors of war… doviolence to the whole spirit of civilisation, thewhole teaching of Christianity’ and ‘I believethat women…are more likely than men to findsome other way of settling internationaldisputes than by an appeal to force’.

H. Runham Brown, in The No-ConscriptionFellowship: A Souvenir of its work 1914 -1919,described the role of women in the NCF andnoted Catherine Marshall’s contribution.

‘As we went to prison they took our placesin the Pacifist movement, fearless throughall the years, with police often followingthem from place to place, raiding theirhomes and offices. A number of womenserved sentences of imprisonment for thepropaganda work they did. The NCF wasconceived in the mind of Lilla Brockway,and throughout its history, but particularlywhile men were away [in prison] womenwere among its most enthusiastic workersand officers. At the Head Office there was asplendid band of keen and capable women.To our first [November 1915] Convention

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CATHERINE MARSHALL’S STORY

Catherine E Marshall (photo: © Religious Society of Friends in Britain)

Catherine E Marshall came as the FraternalDelegate of the Women’s InternationalLeague [for Peace and Freedom], she wasso impressed by the spirit there revealed thatshe decided to devote all of her services toour movement. She became ParliamentarySecretary, and later Acting Hon. Secretary ofthe Fellowship. It was her determined willthat built up the Parliamentary Departmentof the NCF, so that our stand was neverwithout a champion either in the House ofCommons or the House of Lords.’

After 1917 Catherine Marshall suffered fromperiods of ill health but remained active in theWomen’s International League for Peace andFreedom, Labour Party and internationalpolitics. She died in 1962.

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Thomas Attlee (1880-1960)A socialist like his brother, Clem, who was laterPrime Minister - but while Clem joined thearmy, Tom was a Christian pacifist. As one of1300 ‘absolutist’ conscientious objectors, hespent over two years in prison. He was amongthe first members of the Fellowship ofReconciliation and in 1919 took part in themeeting which formed the International FOR.Unable to resume his work as an architect, afterthe war Thomas Attlee settled in Cornwall,lectured for the Workers’ EducationalAssociation, and looked after church buildingsin the Truro Diocese.

Lord Fenner Brockway (1888-1988)Editor in 1915 of Labour Leader, whichcommitted the Independent Labour Party tooppose the war, and initiated the No-Conscription Fellowship. Brockway wasrepeatedly imprisoned for refusing non-combatant work, and endured solitaryconfinement and a bread and water diet forprolonged periods. Elected to parliament in1929. Did not later oppose war with Hitler,though remained chair of the Central Board ofConscientious Objectors. Throughout hispolitical career he championed the causes ofracial justice and human rights, and in hisnineties founded the World DisarmamentCampaign.

Helen Crawfurd (1877-1954)Daughter of a baker from Glasgow’s Gorbals,Crawfurd witnessed the shocking poverty ofher clergyman husband’s Clydeside parish andwas converted to militant feminism andsocialist politics. She set up a Glasgow branchof the Women’s International League and apopular Women’s Peace Crusade whichappealed to working class women who resentedthe effects of war on families, munitions work,and rents. This had branches in other cities,and operated between 1916 and 1918.

Emily Hobhouse (1860-1926)Emily Hobhouse campaigned against theBritish Government keeping Boer families inconcentration camps during the Boer War. Sheopposed World War One too, sending aChristmas letter from British women to Germanand Austrian women in 1914, doing relief workduring and after the war and, in 1916 travellingto Berlin to meet the Foreign Minister. Herattempts at bridge- building were rejected bythe British, but her suggested exchange ofcivilian prisoners took place later.

George Lansbury (1859-1940)Pacifist, and Independent Labour MP for Bowand Bromley, who resigned his seat overwomen’s suffrage. Temporarily out ofParliament, in 1912 Lansbury co-founded theDaily Herald as a radical socialist newspaper,becoming editor just before the declaration ofwar in 1914. He displayed the banner headline

SOME OTHERS WHO SAID ‘NO’ TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR

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WAR IS HELL as fighting began, andsupported the anti-militarist cause throughout,opposing conscription and publicising theposition of conscientious objectors. As Mayorof Poplar he led a rates rebellion in 1921 onbehalf of the poor, and became Leader of theLabour Party 1931-35.

Muriel Lester (1883-1968)Founder in 1915, with her sister Dora, ofKingsley Hall settlement in Bow. Refused torespond to war fever by resolute inclusivenessand service to all, offering prayers for enemynations, pacifist speakers, cheap meals formunitions workers, protection of local Germanand Austrian businesses attacked by a patrioticmob. Threats against Kingsley Hall ended afterit was damaged in a Zeppelin raid. Lestervisited imprisoned COs, spoke on anti-warplatforms for the Fellowship of Reconciliationand later became its International Secretary anda fervent advocate of Gandhian nonviolence.

Chrystal Macmillan (1872-1937)Pioneer as female science graduate andbarrister, and a leader in the internationalwomen’s movement. Organised relief suppliesfor Belgian refugees in 1914. Chair of theScottish Women’s Hospital Scheme whichprovided female doctors and nurses to care forinjured soldiers in Serbia, France and Russia.Macmillan helped organise the InternationalWomen’s Congress at The Hague in 1915 when1200 women discussed how the war could beended and was one of five delegates who tooktheir message to European and USgovernments.

Sir Francis Meynell (1891-1975)Book-designer, printer and poet, who for a timechaired the No-Conscription Fellowship,worked for the anti-war Daily Herald, and otherpublishing enterprises. Meynell admiredGeorge Lansbury, and became an absolutist CO

on grounds of socialism (a war betweenimperial powers) and Catholic faith. AtHounslow Barracks he refused both food anddrink and collapsed after about ten days, closeto death. This hastened his discharge assomeone unlikely to become an efficientsoldier. In 1916 Meynell co-founded ‘TheGuild of the Pope’s Peace’.

Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960)Artist, writer and radical campaigner wholinked socialism with women’s rights.Imprisoned frequently and went on hungerstrike to achieve votes for women. Sylvia waspacifist, horrified when her mother and sisterurged men to join up in 1914. Instead, sheimproved life for East End women with a cheaprestaurant, maternity clinics, legal advice togain better allowances for soldiers’ wives, and atoy factory to provide jobs. Her newspapersupported the No-Conscription Fellowship, andpublished Siegfried Sassoon’s famous anti-warstatement. Involved in leftwing politics to theend of her life.

Max Plowman (1883-1941) Volunteered in 1914, and was wounded in1917. Plowman became convinced that the‘greatest crime’ was killing unknown people incold blood. For refusing to return to his unit hewas court martialled, dismissed from the army,and made liable for conscription. Adopting an‘absolutist’ position at his tribunal, Plowmanwas sent away to reconsider - by which timethe war ended. Author of A Subaltern on theSomme and other books, he later worked forthe Peace Pledge Union, and in the 1930s co-founded with John Middleton-Murry theAdelphi Centre, a pacifist socialist communityand farm at Langham, Essex.

The No-Conscription Fellowship

Knowing that conscription was likely, it wasopposed by some people long before it was evenintroduced. On 12 November 1914, just a fewmonths into the war, and following a suggestionfrom Lilla, his wife, Fenner Brockway had a letterpublished in a newspaper which led to the formationof the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF).

He received 300 replies to his letter and soon theNCF had almost 10,000 members. The NCF wasan organisation which campaigned againstconscription and supported conscientiousobjectors. Other anti-conscription organisationsincluded the (Quaker) Friends Service Committeeand the National Council Against Conscription.All three worked closely together, but the No-Conscription Fellowship was the leading anti-conscription organisation of the time.

In the spring of 1915 the NCF produced amanifesto, set up offices near Fleet Street,London, and appointed Fenner Brockway asSecretary and Clifford Allen as Chairman. Bothwere 26 at the time. At first, membership of theNCF was only open to men who were liable forconscription. Before long, though, the NCF hadsupport among men not liable for conscription,as well as from women.

Women would play a key role in running theNCF in the future. Many leading male membersof the NCF were arrested for refusing to join thearmy, which caused disruption to the running ofthe NCF. Because women could not be arrestedfor refusing to join the army, they ensured theNCF ran smoothly.

Despite continual harassment by the police(which meant going partly ‘underground’) theNCF managed to keep track of almost all COs,provide moral and physical support for some oftheir families, and campaign against the harshtreatment and imprisonment so many of themendured. The NCF was fortunate in its intelligentand dedicated leaders and in its organiser, theformidably efficient Catherine Marshall.

The NCF disbanded at the end of the war, butmany COs, now radicalised by their experience,wanted to continue the struggle against war.They formed the No More War Movementwhich, in the late 1930s, as another warapproached, merged with the newly establishedPeace Pledge Union.

No-Conscription Fellowship - Manifesto

We have been brought to this standpoint by manyways. Some of us have reached it through theChristian faith in which we have been reared,and to our interpretation of which we plead theright to stand loyal. Others have found it byassociation with international movements; webelieve in the solidarity of the human race, andwe cannot betray the ties of brotherhood whichbind us to one another through the nations of theworld.

All of us, however we may have come to thisconviction, believe in the value and sacrednessof human personality, and are prepared tosacrifice as much in the cause of the world’speace as our fellows are sacrificing in the causeof the nation’s war.

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PEACE ORGANISATIONS ACTIVE IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Conscientious Objectors’ Memorial Plaque whichrecords the names of 70 of the 81 British COs known tohave died as a result of their ill-treatment as resisters to

the First World War. It was carved by Dorothy Stevens in1923 and can now be seen at the PPU office in London.

(photo: PPU)

In April 1915, amidst the carnage ofsurrounding warfare, 1200 women from 12countries met in The Hague for three days todiscuss how the war - and all wars - could beended.

War fever was rampant, the press ridiculed thewomen as misguided ‘peacettes’, and travelrestrictions meant that getting to The Hague -Holland itself was neutral - was problematic.No French or Russian women could attend, andpassports were granted to only 25 of the 180British delegates. Arriving at Tilbury theyfound that all shipping had been halted. ThreeBritish women did succeed in reaching TheHague: Chrystal Macmillan, Kathleen Courtneyand Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.

The International Women’s Congress - organisedindependently by women, active in the well-established International Suffrage Alliance, whowanted to show that their ability to sustaininternational cooperation was stronger thanpatriotic militarism. The Congress produced 20resolutions on how to avoid war in the future.Chrystal Macmillan was elected by the Congressas one of five delegates who then travelledacross Europe and to the USA during thesummer months of 1915, visiting 14 countriesand meeting 24 influential leaders: PrimeMinisters, Foreign Ministers, Presidents, theKing of Norway and the Pope. The womenurged the political leaders to set up continuous

mediation by neutrals to end the war. Althoughmost of the statesmen declared themselvessympathetic, not one would take the first step.However, US President Wilson adopted many oftheir proposals in his ‘Fourteen Points’, whichlaid the foundations for the League of Nations.

In 1919 a second International Congress ofWomen met in Zurich just as the Paris PeaceConference published its treaty terms. TheWomen’s Congress elected delegates to takedirectly to Versailles their prophetic critique ofthose terms - which they believed would‘recognise the rights of the victors to the spoilsof war, and create all over Europe discords andanimosities which can only lead to future wars’.

At the Zurich Congress the internationalwomen’s peace movement which had grownout of The Hague initiative was formalised witha constitution, and the internationalorganisation and national committees unitedunder the name of the Women’s InternationalLeague for Peace and Freedom.

The legacy of these determined womencontinues to be acknowledged today. Membersof WILPF - the oldest women’s internationalpeace organisation - are making plans to returnto The Hague in 2015 to review their currentwork and celebrate 100 years of women’s peaceactivism.

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International Women's Congress, The Hague 1915.

6th from the left isJane Addams (USA) Congress President. 5th from the right is

Chrystal Macmillan (GB) (photo: LSE Library, WILPF/2011/18)

The Women’s International Congress in The Hague and Women’s InternationalLeague for Peace and Freedom

In 1914 an ecumenical conference held inConstance, Germany, by Christians seeking toprevent the outbreak of war in Europe, came toan abrupt end. World War One had started andthose present hurried home to their respectivecountries.

As they parted on Cologne railway station twoparticipants shook hands with the words, ‘Weare one in Christ and can never be at war’.They were Friedrich Siegmund-Schültze, aLutheran, and a former chaplain to the GermanKaiser, and Henry Hodgkin, an English Quaker.

In subsequent months Hodgkin and otherBritish Christians who were dismayed at howthe churches fell in behind the war, discussedthe need for a campaigning peace organisation.They called a conference which took place inCambridge in December 1914. At thismeeting, attended by 130 Christians of alldenominations, the Fellowship ofReconciliation was established, Henry Hodgkinwas elected as first chairman, and the visionaryChristian pacifist statement, known as the Basisof the Fellowship, was drafted.

The founding of the German branch came later.For circulating a leaflet in Germany after theConstance conference, Siegmund-Schültze wasarrested and put before a military tribunal forhis pacifist involvement. He was condemned todeath but, on production of a letter of supportfor his views from the Kaiser, was immediatelyreleased, though harassed throughout the war.

During the First World War the Fellowshipgave spiritual, emotional and practical supportto the growing number of people who refusedconscription on the grounds of conscience.

By early 1915 there were 1,500 people enrolledin the FOR and 55 branches throughout the UK- including London, Bournemouth, Burnley,Manchester, Leicester, Bristol and Reading. By1916 there were 84 branches and 4,820 peopleenrolled, and by 1917 this had grown to 7,000.

An American FOR came into being in 1915when Hodgkin visited the United States. In1919 representatives from a dozen countriesmet in Holland and established the networksoon to be known as the InternationalFellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), whichnow has about seventy-two branches andgroups in all five continents.

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Henry Hodgkin (photo from The RebelPassion, George Allen & Unwin, 1964)

Friedrich Siegmund-Schültze (photo from The Rebel Passion,George Allen & Unwin, 1964)

The Origins of the Fellowship of Reconciliation

The ReligiousSociety ofFriends(Quakers) hadbeen involved inlarge scale relieffrom sufferingever since thepotato famine inIreland (alsoknown as TheGreat Hunger) of1846-1849. Adedicated Quaker

relief organization was created during theFranco Prussian War (1870-71) to assist thosenot covered by the Red Cross - which at thattime only supported wounded soldiers. TheQuaker Star (eight pointed, black and red) wasfirst used then to distinguish Quaker relief fromthat of the Red Cross.

In the 1870s Friends War VictimsRelief Committee was initially setup to be a temporary body, butthen provided relief in EastEurope during the 1890s, andfurther relief during the BalkanWars of 1912 -1914. From thishistory and experience of reliefand support during wartimeQuakers gained an understandingboth of the needs and of what theycould provide. It also meant thatthere was institutional learningabout how relief schemes could beset up.

Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU)was established by a group of Quakers at theoutbreak of war in 1914. It provided analternative to military service from the outset.When conscription was introduced in 1916 itsmembers were drawn from registeredconscientious objectors, most of whom werenot themselves Quakers. FAU members chieflyprovided medical support for wounded and sicktroops on ambulance trains and hospital ships.At least eight hospitals in France and Belgium

were staffed by the FAU, and four more inEngland. By 1918 more than 1500 people hadserved, and 21 FAU members had died inservice.

During the First World War a naval blockadewas imposed on Germany, causing starvationamong the population. Quakers embarked on aGerman feeding programme in 1920 and fedmore than five million children during thefollowing four years. This enabled BritishQuakers to have a unique insight into thesituation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s,about which they used to constantly inform theBritish Government. By the end of the 1930sQuakers were instrumental in enabling 10,000unaccompanied children to come to Britainthrough a scheme now known as theKindertransport.

Friends Ambulance Unit was reformed in 1939by two Quakers who had worked in FAU inWorld War One. Over 1,300 members servedbetween 1939 and 1946 including 97 women.

Anyone wishing to do more in-depth researchinto the FAU is welcome to visit Friends HouseLibrary, London.

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Red and black Quaker star(photo: © Religious Society of

Friends in Britain)

Friends’ No.16 Ambulance Train(photo: PPU)

Friends Ambulance Unit

This tiny and short-lived peace group wasfounded in 1916 by Francis Meynell andStanley Morison, the typographer, bothCatholics and COs, who had met when theyworked at Burns and Oates, the publishinghouse run by Meynell’s father. The Guild’s‘committee’ of seven comprised the entiremembership. Their main activity was to printand distribute the peace messages of PopeBenedict XV. The new group met with ahostile response in the religious press and thedisapproval of bishops who were determined toprove the patriotic loyalty of Catholics(especially at that time of Irish rebellion againstBritish rule).

For the most part the Guild was ignored, aswere the impassioned appeals of the Pope for anegotiated end to the war, and warnings thathumiliating peace terms would perpetuateconflict. The significance of the Guild is that itwas the first British attempt to form a Catholicpeace organisation. One of its committeemembers was E.I. Watkin, the philosopher, whowould be instrumental in founding the PAXSociety in 1936, the Catholic peaceorganisation which merged later with PaxChristi.

Please check Network for Peace website:www.networkforpeace.org.uk for furtherevents as plans develop.

2013Monday 2 December - 20.00 - Fellowship ofReconciliation centenary concert and carolservice at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

2014Thursday 15 May International ConscientiousObjectors’ Day

London - 12 noon - annual commemoration inTavistock Square WC2

June - Sarajevo peace events see www.1914-2014.eu

Monday 4 AugustLondon - 12.00-14.00 - silent vigil at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, WC2 with themessage ‘War No More - War Never Again’

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CENTENARY PEACE EVENTS

PLACES TO SEELondon - Granite stone monument toConscientious Objectors, Tavistock Square,WC2.

Richmond Castle, North Yorkshire -Interactive exhibition about the COs imprisonedthere in the First World War includes theinscriptions written on their cell walls. Accessto the actual cells is by special application onlybecause the inscriptions are now so fragile.

The Peace Museum in Bradford will behosting a temporary exhibition aboutConscientious Objectors; dates to be confirmed.Please visit the exhibitions page atwww.peacemuseum.org.uk for furtherinformation.

Conscientious Objectors Memorialin Tavistock Square London (photo: Alan Gerrard)

The Guild of the Pope’s Peace

PublicationsNew and secondhand books on these topics canbe ordered through Housmans Bookshopwww.housmans.com

WW1 Peace Organisations

Vera Brittain, The Rebel Passion: a shorthistory of some pioneer peacemakers, London:George Allen & Unwin, 1964

Gertrude Bussey and Margaret Tims, Pioneersfor Peace: Women’s International League forPeace and Freedom 1915-1965, London:WILPF 1980

Martin Ceadal, Pacifism in Britain 1914-45Defining of a Faith, Oxford: OUP 1980

Chris Clayton, ‘Pacifism and Socialism in Hydeduring the Great War’ in North West LabourHistory, issue 35 2010-2011, 5-11

Jill Liddington, The Road to GreenhamCommon: Feminism and Anti-militarism inBritain since 1820, Syracuse University Press,1991

Cyril Pearce, Comrades in Conscience: TheStory of an English Community’s Opposition tothe Great War, London: Francis Boutle, 2001

Youssef Taouk, ‘The Guild of the Pope’s Peace:a British Peace Movement in the First WorldWar’ in Recusant History, Vol 29, No2 October2008, 252-271

Jill Wallis, Valiant for Peace: a History of theFellowship of Reconciliation 1914-1989,London: FOR, 1991

Ken Weller, Don’t be a Soldier: The RadicalAnti-War Movement in North London 1914-1918, London History Workshop Centre,Journeyman Press, 1985

Anne Wiltsher, Most Dangerous Women:Feminist Campaigners of the Great War,London: Pandora 1985

Individuals

Peggy Attlee, With a quiet Conscience: abiography of Thomas Simons Attlee 1880-1960,

London: Dove & Chough Press, 1995

Fenner Brockway, Autobiography - TowardsTomorrow, London, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon,1977

Malcolm Pittock, ‘Max Plowman and theLiterature of the First World War’ in TheCambridge Quarterly, Vol 33, No 3 2004, 217-243

Jo Vellacott, From Liberal to Labour withWomen’s Suffrage: the Story of CatherineMarshall, Montreal: McGill-Queen’sUniversity Press, 1993

Jill Wallis, Mother of World Peace: the Life ofMuriel Lester, Enfield Lock Middx: HisarlikPress, 1993

Conscientious Objection

Felicity Goodall, A Question of Conscience:Conscientious Objection in the Two WorldWars, Stroud Glos: Sutton Publishing, 1997

Oliver Haslam, Refusing to Kill: ConscientiousObjection and Human Rights in the First WorldWar, London: PPU, 2006 (includes CD ofactivities for Key Stages 3 & 4)

Lyn Smith, Voices Against War: a Century ofProtest, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing inassociation with the Imperial War Museum,2010.

Archival Resources

Conscientious Objection Resource Centre at thePeace Pledge Union Office in London, open tothe public, includes a database of ConscientiousObjectors as well as a wide variety of originalarchive material and a library.

The Peace Museum, Bradford

Archives of the Fellowship of Reconciliationand WILPF are held at the London School ofEconomics

Friends House Library, London

Imperial War Museum and Sound Archives,London.

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SOURCES OF FURTHER INFORMATION

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Working Class Movement Library, Salford -Exhibition and other documents about localCOs - http:// www.wcml.org.uk/ncf

Commemorative ProjectsLegacies of War project of Leeds Universityincludes a strand on War and Resistancehttp://arts.leeds.ac.uk/legaciesofwar/

Film

Conscientious ObjectorEdna St Vincent Millay’s poem provides thescript for this 14-minute film. It opens with thehaunting line ‘I shall die, but that is all I shalldo for death…’ Poses the question what willwe not do as a matter of conscience /morality?(available from Pax Christi)

Music

‘The ones who said no’ Words and music by Sue Gilmurray is on theCD Call Back the Fire (available fromMovement for the Abolition of War) whichincludes other songs relating to the First WorldWar. Another song by Sue Gilmurray is called‘Vera’ - about Vera Brittain. Hear it onwww.soundcloud.com/mightierpen

Links to some peace organisations inthe UK today working onconscientious objection, militarism,and a culture of peace.

Conscience - Taxes for Peace not War -www.conscienceonline.org.uk

Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) -www.for.org.uk

ForcesWatch - www.forceswatch.net

Movement for the Abolition of War -www.abolishwar.org.uk

Network for Peace -www.networkforpeace.org.uk

Pax Christi - www.paxchristi.org.uk

Peace Museum - www.peacemuseum.org.uk

Peace Pledge Union (PPU) - www.ppu.org.uk

Quaker Peace and Social Witness -www.quaker.org.uk

Veterans for Peace -www.veteransforpeace.org.uk

War Resisters International - www.wri-irg.org

Women’s International League for Peace andFreedom (WILPF) - www.ukwilpf.org.uk andwww.wilpfinternational.org

Opposing World War One: Courage and Conscience

Published 2013 jointly by Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, Peace Pledge Union, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

If you use any of this material please acknowledge this publication as the source. Some photographsmay be subject to copyright. Please contact one of the publishing organisations if you would like touse any of them.

Panel from exhibition about Conscientious Objectionavailable at the Working Class Movement Library,

Salford (photo: Valerie Flessati)