Five more First World War COs and what happened to them:
A Glasgow anarchist who survived into his 80s, a dedicated doctor (and rugby footballer); one "missing presumed killed"; one suicide; and an ILP activist who (probably) got away.
1. More information is available about
Willie McDougall (1894-1981) than about many of his fellow COs.
From the
Pearce Register:
William C McDougal
Age 22.1
Birth year 1894
Year 1916
Address
Address 2 Glasgow
Local authority Glasgow City
County Lanarkshire
Country Scotland
Latitude 55.85
Longitude -4.25
Ordnance Survey reference NS590650
Fugitive Yes
Motivation Communist Anarchist
Military Service Tribunal MST (Military Service Tribunal)
Central Tribunal at Wormwood S. 21.9.16 - CO class A, to Brace Committee
Central Tribunal Central Tribunal Nos. W.1589
Class: A - Genuine
War Service (?) 3 (R) Highland
Light Infantry CM (Court Martial) Currie 1.9.16 - 1yr.HL (With hard labour)
com.28 days (?), Wormwood S.
War Service comments Brutality
case
Magistrates Court Arrested beaten
up by local police, tried and handed over 1916
Magistrates Court comments
Absentee
Prison Wormwood S.
Work Centre HOS (The Home Office
Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee) Denton Road Board Camp; Dartmoor
31.7.17 - absconded on a bike and rode back to Glasgow
WO363 false
Notes *Spelling in NA/MH47/1
Central Tribunal Minutes, 'McDougall'
Sources NCF (No-Conscription
Fellowship)/COIB Reports 105 29.8.18; J.T.Caldwell (1988); Not found in
NA/WO363; Possibly NA/WO86/71/161; Obit. Bob Jones 'William C. McDougal'*,
History Workshop Journal, 13, Spring 1982, pp.205-207; NA/MH47/1 Central
Tribunal Minutes.
Record set Conscientious
Objectors' Register 1914-1918 [Pearce Register]
[* Surname is McDougall in the body of the HWJ article]
Robert Duncan tells a little more of the story, referring to the obituary by Bob Jones (image above) to highlight how McDougall tried to organise a strike at Dartmoor in support of a victimised fellow-worker, and then escaped the work camp, encouraged by others, by cycling part of the way to Plymouth and from Wakefield to Glasgow, where he successfully eluded arrest and resumed his political activity. Jones describes him as a life-long libertarian and non-sectarian and an advocate of anti-authoritarian socialism.
 |
| Willie McDougall (aged 20) is said to be standing at the back |
Willie MacDougall got on his bike - or rather, the Centre's bike - and cycled
back to Glasgow from whence he had come. There was no ambiguity about his
position. He had been preaching anti-parliamentary communism and
anti-militarism when he was arrested. He simply went back and continued the
good work - for the next sixty-six years, when he died, still in harness.
- John Taylor Caldwell, Come Dungeons Dark, 1988, pp.155-6
2.
MacCallum, John Cameron (name as in 1913 Medical Register Great Britain online).
In
Objectors and Resisters (p. 109) Dr MacCallum is described as an Edinburgh graduate in Arts and Medicine who in his early 30s had become Medical Officer of Health for Argyllshire, specialising in tuberculosis, as well as having been a Scottish rugby international. He chose to become a CO rather than seek occupational exemption, and was one of those sent to do noxious work in appalling conditions at an ‘artificial manure’ manufacturers in Broxburn, near Edinburgh. There he was himself victimised after he had spoken out against abusive treatment of the workers and was accused of exerting a bad influence. A letter of protest about his arrest and recall to the army was addressed to the Home Office in May 1917, but in spite of this and of the concern expressed in Parliament as below, he was returned to Perth prison, where he served a third sentence in 1918.
Record set Conscientious Objectors' Register 1914-1918:
John C Dr? McCallum
Occupation Doctor
and TB officer for Argyllshire
Age 32
Birth year 1884
Year 1916
Address Muckairn
Manse*
Address 2 Taynuilt
Local authority Lorn
County District
County Argyllshire
Country Scotland
Latitude 56.42
Longitude -5.24
Ordnance Survey reference NN000310
Absolutist Yes
Motivation -
Military Service Tribunal MST
(Military Service Tribunal) Central Tribunal at Calton CP (Civil Prison), Edinburgh,
1.9.16 - CO class A, to Brace Committee
Central Tribunal Central
Tribunal Nos. W.1143 Class: A - Genuine
War Service Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders, Depot Stirling CM (Court Martial) Stirling 15.6.16
- 6 months HL (With hard labour) com.to 112 days Perth CP (Civil Prison); to
HOS (The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee); returned to
unit; CM (Court Martial) Perth 28.6.17 - 18 months HL (With hard labour); CM
(Court Martial) Kinsale 13.5.18 - 18 months com.6 months
Prison Perth CP
(Civil Prison) 19.6.16 to 28.8.16 to Edinburgh; Perth CP (Civil Prison) 3.7.17
to 29.4.18 to Stirling; Dumfries CP (Civil Prison); By Jan.1919 had served 2/3
sentences and more than two years (10 months HOS (The Home Office Scheme,
administered by the Brace Committee)).
Work Centre HOS
(The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee) Wakefield; Messrs
Rough and Sons, Artificial Manure manufacturers, Broxburn, Edinburgh; 10 months
HOS (The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee)
Work Centre comments Rejected/rejected
by HOS (The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee) (?); Q in H 14.6.17 and 18.6.17
asked by T. E. Harvey re his skills being 'wasted' on HOS (The Home
Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee)
WO363 false
Notes *Father's
address; Q in H 18.6.17 also referred to his being 'one of the finest football
players who has ever played in Scotland'
Sources COH33
21.6.17 p.407 and 411; NA/WO86/70/124, 76/151, 82/64; Letter from his father
6.7.17 in T.E.Harvey MP ([Military Prison Member of Parliament]) Correspondence Friends House
Temp.Mss.835 Box.4; FH/FSC(1916/20)/SER3 - COIB Two Year Men, SER3 - COIB Two
Year Men Draft List NAS/HH31/29/1 - COs in Scottish Prisons July 1916;
NAS/HH31/29/6 - Central Appeal Tribunal 1.9.16; NAS/HH21/47/16 Perth Prison
Register; NA/MH47/1 Central Tribunal Minutes FH/SER/VOPC/Cases/5(1432)
The
questions in the House, and the answers they received, such as they were, run as follows (the first is "written", hence the repetition):
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.
HC Deb 14 June 1917 vol 94 cc1148-50W
1148W
asked the Home Secretary whether
Dr. J. C. M'Callum, a
graduate of Edinburgh University, medallist and holder of the Monat
scholarship, executive tuberculosis officer for the county of Argyll, holding
the diploma of public health, and having specialised in the treatment of
tuberculosis, has been employed by the Home Office Committee on Employment of
Conscientious Objectors, first at Wakefield and then as a labourer in the
manufacture of manure for Messrs. Rough and Sons, Broxburn, Edinburgh; whether,
in consequence of a breach of workshop discipline.
1149W this employment has been terminated;
and
whether, in the national interest, he will consider the possibility of
employing this specialist on public health work under whatever financial conditions
the Committee's regulations impose instead of on work for which he is not
fitted or instead of sending him back to court-martial and prison?
John M'Callum has been employed as stated. His employment
has been terminated, not for one, but for several breaches of discipline. The
Committee on the Employment of Conscientious Objectors have recommended his
recall to the Army, and the case is now out of their hands. Dr. M'Callum has
never applied to the Committee to be released in order to take up employment as
a doctor, but he and members of his family have made applications for him to be
allowed to do ploughing and similar work for relatives.
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.
HC Deb 18 June 1917 vol 94 cc1407-9
1407
asked the Home Secretary whether Dr. J. C. MacCallum, a
graduate of Edinburgh University, medallist and holder of the Monat
scholarship, executive tuberculosis officer for the county of Argyll, holding
the diploma of public health, and having specialised in the treatment of tuberculosis,
has been employed by the Home Office Committee on Employment of Conscientious
Objectors, first at Wakefield and then as a labourer in the manufacture of
manure for Messrs. Rough and Sons, Broxburn, Edinburgh; whether, in
1409 consequence of a breach of workshop
discipline, this employment has been terminated; and whether, in the national
interest, he will consider the possibility of employing this specialist on
public health work under whatever financial conditions the Committee's
regulations impose, instead of on work for which he is not fitted or instead of
sending him back to court-martial and prison?
John MacCallum has been employed as stated. His employment
has been terminated, not for one but for several breaches of discipline. The
Committee on the Employment of Conscientious Objectors have recommended his
recall to the Army, and the ease is now out of their hands. I understand that
Dr. MacCallum has never applied to the Committee to be released in order to
take up employment as a doctor, but he and members of his family have made
applications for him to be allowed to do ploughing and similar work for
relatives.
Will the right hon. Gentleman consult the Under-Secretary of
State for War on the matter? Is he aware that this man is one of the finest
football players who has ever played in Scotland? Will he get some details and
put him to useful work?
It is a matter of recommendation.
Will the right hon. Gentleman consider that this Committee
should employ doctors for medical work in view of the great need for doctors in
the country? Is it not uneconomical that they should be employed on making mail
bags and artificial manures?
If applications were made for their services no doubt they
would be considered.
Is it not their duty to find out for themselves?
Would it not be better to employ as medical men doctors who
are not shirkers?
He is not a shirker.
Does the right hon. Gentleman consider this an instance of
scientific organisation?
John MacCallum's father wrote to Mr. Harvey on 6th July 1917, referring to his having been good enough to ask the above Parliamentary Question, and informing him that John had been court-martialled at Perth and sentenced to 18 months, reduced to one year. Describing his son's imprisonment as a gross injustice and a pure loss to the nation, the Rev. Malcolm MacCallum asserted
that John had undertaken and performed the disagreeable work that was
given him and asked: "Why not allow him to serve in a Hospital under civil control? No penalty can break down his objection to military service." (Correspondence in Friends House Library, Euston, Temp. MSS 835/M/1 Box 4).
3. James Edny Sangster also served time in Perth prison, and while there was, along with James Maxton (Edinburgh), the subject of adverse comment by Scottish Prison Commissioner Dr James Devon, as previously noted:
‘In my opinion Sangster is more than a little daft,
and Maxton more insane than sane. Neither is accessible to reason. They are
alike in their exaggerated egoism and in their want of a sense of proportion,
and I should not be at all surprised if either or both of them become
certifiably insane.’
James Sangster avoided that outcome (unlike perhaps about 30 other COs), but his fate was nevertheless a tragic one, after he apparently abandoned his conscientious objection: sent to France in July 1917, "missing presumed killed" a month later.
James Ednie [/Edny] Sangster
Marital status Married
(3 [children])
Occupation Upholsterer
Age 32
Birth year 1884
Year 1916
Address 72,
Church Street
Address 2 Dundee
Local authority Dundee
City
County Forfarshire
Angus
Country Scotland
Latitude 56.47
Longitude -3.04
Ordnance Survey reference NO360320
Service number S/21209
Motivation 'Quaker'
and 'No religion' [Being designated a Quaker in prison could mean a chance to communicate with the outside world via sympathetic chaplains]
Military Service Tribunal MST
(Military Service Tribunal) Refused to use Tribunal system because 'they can't judge a
man's conscientious claims.' (Evening Telegraph 25.7.16)
War Service 11
Gordon Highlanders (S/15126), CM (Court Martial) Bridge of Allan 23.8.16 -
2yrs.HL (With hard labour), Barlinnie CP (Civil Prison). Quit his CO -
Re-joined the colours, 25.4.17, 42 TRB; Transferred to Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders (S/21209) 11.6.17; to France 20.7.17 Missing 22.8.17 presumed
killed - Tyne Cot Memorial
War Service comments Refused
to sign
Magistrates Court Arrested,
tried at Dundee Police Court 25.7.16, fined 40/- and handed over
Magistrates Court comments Absentee
Prison Barlinnie CP
(Civil Prison) 28.8.16 to 12.10.16 released to HOS (The Home Office Scheme,
administered by the Brace Committee), Ballachulish; Duke Street 8.1.17 to
13.1.17 transfer to Perth; Perth CP (Civil Prison) 13.1.17 to 25.4.17 to
Tillicoultry
Work Centre HOS
(The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee) 12.10.16 to
Ballachulish; transferred to Army Reserve Class W 2.11.16; refused the work at
Kinlochleven/Ballachulish and sent to Duke Street CP (Civil Prison) to serve
the remainder of his sentence.
WO363 false [actually true according to Sources, confirmed by records online]
Sources NCF
(No-Conscription Fellowship)/COIB Report XXX; NA/WO86/71/123; NAS/HH21/70/55
Barlinnie Register 1916-1919; NAS/HH21/32/137 Glasgow Duke Street 1916-18; NA/WO363 - on line (Detailed
file); CWGC; NAS/HH21/47/16 Perth CP (Civil Prison) Register; Dundee
Courier 26.7.16 re.trial; Evening Telegraph 25.7.16 re.trial;
Record set Conscientious
Objectors' Register 1914-1918
4. The case of Alexander Campbell', another 'Quaker' (although the term was sometimes used generically for COs in prison) and an ILP member, was arguably more tragic still.
Record set Conscientious Objectors' Register 1914-1918:
Alexander Neil
Campbell
Age 25
Birth year 1891
Year 1916
Address 531
Cathcart Road
Address 2 Glasgow
Local authority Glasgow
City
County Lanarkshire
Country Scotland
Latitude 55.85
Longitude -4.25
Ordnance Survey reference NS590650
Absolutist Yes
Motivation ILP
(Independent Labour Party) (Govanhill Branch); Quaker
Military Service Tribunal MST
(Military Service Tribunal) Central Tribunal at Wormwood S. 10.11.16 - refused
to accept HOS (The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee)
conditions
Central Tribunal Central
Tribunal Nos. W.2024 Refused HOS
War Service Depot
R.Scots Fusiliers, Ayr; CM (Court Martial) Ayr 20.10.16 - 112 days HL (With
hard labour), Wormwood S.; CM (Court Martial) Ayr Barracks 1.2.17 - 9 months HL
(With hard labour); CM (Court Martial) Ayr 9.7.17 - died at Ayr Barracks 11.7.17
'Committed suicide, died in a few minutes'
War Service comments Alleged suicide
Magistrates Court Arrested
tried and handed over 13.10.16;
Magistrates Court comments Absentee
 |
| 100 years on |
Prison Wormwood S.;
Ayr CP (Civil Prison) 5.2.17 to Duke Street CP (Civil Prison), Glasgow 6.4.17;
Duke Street 6.4.17 to 12.4.17 transfer to Barlinnie CP (Civil Prison);
Barlinnie CP (Civil Prison) 12.4.17 to 30.6.17 released to unit.
WO363 false
Notes *Died after
arrest but not in prison - according to NCF souvenir. He actually died -
allegedly suicide - at Ayr Barracks July 1917 (D/Mar/4/21)
Sources NCF
(No-Conscription Fellowship) Souvenir; Cumbria RO(Carlisle)D/Mar/4/56,
D/Mar/4/21; NCF (No-Conscription Fellowship)/COIB Report LIII;
FH/FSC(1916/20);The Friend 10.8.17 (Report of his suicide) - see also Tribunal
26.7.17; NA/WO86/72/40, 73/186; FH/FSC(1916/20)/SER28 Case file; NAS/HH21/27/23
Ayr Prison Nominal Register; NAS/HH21/70/55 Barlinnie Register 1916-1919;
NA/MH47/1 Central Tribunal Minutes; FH/SER/VOPC/Cases/2(2768)
* The "allegation" is confirmed by his "British Army service record":
 |
| "Died at Ayr on 11-7-17 of Suicide by cutting throat" |
His suicide is also mentioned briefly in Ann Kramer’s book Conscientious Objectors of the First World
War, 2014 (p.143) and (as N A
Campbell) he is on the list compiled by the Conscientious Objectors Information
Bureau in 1921 of 73 COs - including eight with addresses in Scotland - who at the time were known or believed to have “died as a direct result of their treatment..." as referenced by Boulton:
 |
From David Boulton, Objection Overruled, 2014 edition, p.266 note 8.
The list also appears in John Taylor Caldwell, Come Dungeons Dark, 1988, pp.289-90. |
The ordeal of consecutive
prison sentences proved too great for Alexander Campbell, age 19, a member of
Govanhill ILP, who committed suicide after a third court martial at Ayr
barracks in July 1917. He had already served two prison sentences, at Wormwood
Scrubs and Barlinnie, and at court martial ‘seemed to be in a state of nervous
collapse. In this pitiable condition, he yielded to the persuasion of the court
and consented to become a soldier’. Two
days later, full of remorse at giving in after battling the system for so long,
he cut his throat with a razor. Quaker chaplains who had visited Campbell in prison
described him as ‘a sensible, bright, intelligent young man, the sincerity of
whose convictions impressed itself upon them’. The report concluded that ‘the
long confinement and meagre diet of the prison had done their work ii reducing
his physical powers and mental stamina, and his death is another terrible
indictment of our penal system.’ - Robert Duncan, Objectors and Resisters, p.194; sources for this paragraph are given as Forward (ILP paper) and The Tribunal (No-Conscription Fellowship paper)
5. After
this the case of
Hugh Gemmell strikes a happier note, as he seems, if Duncan is right, to have been one that got away, eventually. His record on the COs' Register is not very informative, however.
Hugh Gemmell
Age 24
Birth year 1893
Year 1917
Address -
Local authority -
County -
Country Great
Britain
Latitude -
Longitude -
Ordnance Survey reference -
Absolutist Yes
Motivation Non-Sect.
Military Service Tribunal MST
(Military Service Tribunal) Central Tribunal at Wormwood S. 24.9.17, refused to
accept HOS (The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee)
conditions
Central Tribunal Central
Tribunal Nos. W. 4323 Refused HOS
War Service Depot
Scottish Rifles CM (Court Martial) Hamilton 7.8.17 - 112 days HL (With hard
labour), Wormwood S.
Prison Wormwood S.
11.8.17 to 9.11.17 to Escort
WO363 false
Sources NA/WO86/77/68;
LMA/4417/01/016 - Wormwood S. Nominal Register; Not found in NA/WO363;
NA/MH47/2 Central Tribunal Minutes; FH/SER/VOPC/Cases/3(4440)
Record set Conscientious
Objectors' Register 1914-1918
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Turning again to Objectors and Resisters, pp.67-69, we find more about him.
From notes -
Hugh Gemmell,
class-war socialist and activist; Bridgeton ILP, organiser for Shop Assistants Union: The LP paper Forward carried a transcription of proceedings at his Local Tribunal hearing (22-5-16) in which he took an unequivocally revolutionary and non-pacifist stance. He is quoted as saying “I believe in one war, the class war, the struggle that is always going on between capital and labour for control of the means of life" and states that he would bear arms to defend common ownership of the means of life. Very unusually, the Sheriff in charge of the Tribunal was "sorry to say" the case was dismissed, claiming he understood and could admire a man who had evolved such a position and stuck to it, but considering its "entirely political" nature set it outside the provision for conscientious objection.. Accordingly he willingly granted leave granted for an appeal to the Central Tribunal, saying he “would like to make it a test case.” The appeal was predictably unsuccessful but according to Duncan, Gemmell seems
to have avoided arrest after refusing to go on the Home Office work scheme and continued politically active until shortly disappearing from the record,
possibly - the author speculates hopefully - on the run and helped to reach safety in Ireland, like other COs aided by the support networks that grew up in several places...
Interestingly and encouragingly, someone of the same name does indeed turn up in an appropriate context, at a possible sort of date if he stayed after the war, in Northern Ireland: "In March 1925 the first issue of the newspaper The Labour Opposition of Northern Ireland appeared, published by the Northern branch of the ILP and edited by Hugh Gemmell..."
Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1830–1945 [search result]
https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0230503772
Donal Ó Drisceoil, F. Lane - 2005 - History. "Walker's outright opposition to Irish home rule had eventually put him at odds with ... published by the northern branch of the ILP and edited by Hugh Gemmell..."
 |
East wall of Wormwood Scrubs prison, 1989
(scene of George Blake's celebrated assisted escape in October 1966) |
