Main source for dates is David Boulton, Objection Overruled (Francis Boutle, 2014)
1915
summer ILP
pamphlet: The Peril of Conscription
October Stop Conscription meetings across
country (ILP)
1916
January 6th Military
Service Bill first reading
January 27th Military
Service Bill became law: men aged 18-40, single, liable for call-up
February War
Office Form W 3236 sent to those liable
March 2nd Date
for lodging exemption claim (poster)
March 9th 1st
issue of The Tribunal (N-CF)
April 8th - 9th 2nd
N-CF National Convention: Pledge by 2,000
to resist
April N-CF branch members fined/imprisoned
re anti-recruiting leaflets
May 7th - 8th CO
prisoners taken to France with NCC
May 17th 8
N-CF Nat Comm. members charged re leaflet 'Repeal the (DoR) Act'
May 25th Military
Service (General Compulsion) Act: married men now liable
June 2nd COs'
courts martial at Boulogne begun
June 15th Parade
ground sentences: 35 'guilty of
disobedience'
June 24th A
W Evans' court martial (later than others due to illness)
June 28th PM
statement: COs being shipped back
August Dyce work camp set up
September, early Death
of Walter Roberts in Dyce camp
October, end Dyce
camp closed
1917
April Military Service (Review of
Exemptions) Act
April 6th N-CF
message to Provisional Govt. in Russia: "our comrades"
March Several work settlements closed down
May 17th Meeting
of nearly 900 at Dartmoor work centre (for ‘real’ work with civil rights)
June 3rd Leeds
conference welcoming Russian Revolution
June 15th N-CF
Nat Com confirms refusal to sponsor or organise work strikes by COs
July Act making certain categories of
aliens subject to conscription
December 12th Death
of Arthur Butler in Preston; doctor exonerated by inquest jury
December Govt.
"concessions" to COs having served >12 months: excluding labour,
diet
December German
peace offer
1918
early Newcastle, Maidstone, Wandsworth,
Winchester, Carlisle, Canterbury, Hull – Hunger strikes by COs:
January Powers to cancel occupational
exemptions
January 16th Death
of Arthur Horton in Shrewsbury (pneumonia); doctor exonerated by inquest jury
February Hunger
strike at Newcastle over "incompetence and inhumanity" of prison
doctor
February 4th Death
of H W Firth at Dartmoor
February 9th Prosecution
of Bertrand Russell and Joan Beauchamp re letter in The Tribunal
February, mid Police
raid on N-CF premises; copies of paper seized
 |
| Guy Aldred |
April 30th Lords
debate re ‘work of national value’ for COs
October Work strike by 20 COs in Wandsworth
(Guy Aldred)
Similar actions in Leicester, Leeds,
Pentonville, Liverpool, Newcastle, Preston
November 11th Armistice:
COs remained in prison
December 12th Aldred
and other strikers in Wandsworth moved to basement cells
(cat-and-mouse release after a
week's hunger strike)
1919
Several
'unofficial' [not N-CF supported] work strikes by COs throughout year.
February New
governor at Wandsworth tries to impose iron discipline; open rebellion
continues Parliamentary
enquiry, eventually
April Releases of COs begin with
"2-year men"
April 29th FSC
lists "20-monthers" awaiting release; 24 get out of Pentonville and
Wandsworth
May Day Call
for general prison strike (J H Hudson, Manchester)
May CMs continue: sentences of hard
labour
June Joint Board for Assistance of COs and Their
Dependants formed
1920
January Joan Beauchamp sentenced to 21 days
as publisher of The Tribunal; serves 8
days.
January 8th Last
issue of The Tribunal
May 20th Announcement
of orders for release of all conscripts
1921
August 31st Official
end of war: Military Service Acts lapse.
COs = Conscientious Objectors
N-CF No-Conscription Fellowship
NCC Non-Combatant Corps
ILP Independent Labour Party
FSC Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
Applications for
exemption could be made to Tribunals under the following headings:
a. On the ground
that it was in the national interest that the man should, instead of being
employed in military service, be engaged in work in which he was habitually
engaged;
b. On the ground
that it was in the national interest that the man should, instead of being
employed in military service, be engaged in work in which he wished to be
engaged;
c. That the man
was being educated or trained for any work, on the ground that it was expedient
in the national interest that, instead of being employed in military service,
he should continue to be so educated or trained;
d. On the ground
that serious hardship would ensue, if the man were called up for Army service,
owing to his exceptional financial or business obligations or domestic
position;
e. On the ground
of ill-health or infirmity;
f. On the ground
of a conscientious objection to the undertaking of combatant service; and
g. On the ground
that the principal and usual occupation of the man was one of those included in
the list of occupations certified by Government Departments and that it was
expedient in the national interest that he should continued in such occupation. |
| A group of COs with supporters |
See many subsequent posts for lots more about First World War COs.
No comments:
Post a Comment