A Council House in Stornoway, 1954-59

38 Kennedy Terrace

During his time on Stornoway Town Council one of Calum Smith's main concerns was the provision of more and better homes at an easily affordable rent, what is now called 'social housing'. He used to point with some pride  at a small 'scheme' destined for older people, claiming credit for the decision to paint the front doors in different colours instead of all in one of the traditional darkish school-uniform shades. In his memoir Around the Peat-fire (Birlinn, 2001 and 2010) he described the inadequate conditions in which his parents had to raise their large family, and the surprise of finding them accommodated in a council house in Goathill Cottages (later Anderson Road) on his return from university. His future wife Peggy in a similarly large family had moved into a parallel street (Nicolson Road). Their respective parents and younger siblings were subsequently moved to Bain Square, Manor Park (Smiths) and Springfield Road (Fletts), still in council schemes.

 

38 Kennedy Terrace, 1959
(with accidental ink blot)

In the mid-1950s the social housing sector was expanding in Stornoway as elsewhere to try to cope with postwar demand. At around the same time Calum, now married with two daughters, was faced with the loss of the family's accommodation after the death of Peggy's maternal aunt, in whose house they had been living (paying rent). They had been on the council waiting list for some time and were offered a new home in one of the first blocks to be ready for occupation in Kennedy Terrace. (Not, be it noted, as a result of undue influence; in fact a previous offer had been declined precisely because Calum did not wish to appear to be jumping the queue. He was still on the council, however, although not for very much longer, and there were some ill-natured mutterings.)

Their new house was at one end of a block of four. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a living room and kitchen downstairs. Several of the neighbouring households were new to town life, having come in from 'the country', Gaelic speakers and staunch Free-Kirk Presbyterians. Next door to Calum lived Captain Smith (no relation) of the mailboat, the old Loch Seaforth, with his wife and four daughters. As more families moved in around them the children of the Terrace soon got to know each other and developed their own ways of interacting. They communicated in English, with the occasional borrowing ('deoch' for drink), and a sprinkling of the Stornoway argot (two wing meek = tuppence ha'penny).

Post-election-defeat letter to Calum

It wasn't a bad place to be growing up, notably good for street play, with very little traffic. Few people had cars. There was space in the cul-de-sac, with steps down to paths past back gardens to Leverhulme Drive, and a square of stubby grass where the watchman's hut stood until the buildings around were complete. In the early days unfinished houses were a site of illicit ploys, with the risk of being chased by the 'watchie'; later, he would sometimes invite a few children into his hut of a cold evening, for warmth and a 'yarn'.

A more approved pastimes (for girls) was skipping using a long rope (two wielding it, one performing in the middle) bought from the ironmongers (Calum spliced the ends of one for his daughter, using his wartime-navy skills) accompanied by the usual sort of chants (Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales/ All turned up like the monkeys' TAILS!), many preoccupied with supposed romantic prediction;, e.g.
'Gooseberry, raspberry,strawberry jam/
Tell me the name of your young man. 
A - B - etc.' 
(The intial at which you tripped up would be that of your 'boyfriend'. Then the traditional 'Tinker, tailor..' would find out his occupation, and 'Castle/ palace/ pigsty/ barn' where you would live.)

After the skipping season came 'doublers', using two multi-coloured rubber balls from Woolworths (they had to be the right kind) to test your dexterity and coordination against any fairly smooth vertical surface, usually that of the 'close' that ran through the middle of the block, for as long as the inhabitants would or could put up with the thumping. Refinements included overhand and underleg throws, clapping, and twirling round fast enough to catch the ball on the rebound, the game being not to let one fall. The actions might be performed in a prescribed sequence: Plainy, stooky, dummy, stooky-dummy, right hand, left hand, right leg under, left leg under... or to various rhymes.
One clasic chant for Doublers went like this:
"Are you gong to golf, sir/ No sir/ Why sir?
Because I've got a cold sir/ Where did you get the cold sir?
At the North Pole sir./ What were you doing there sir?
Catching polar bears sir/ How many did you catch sir?
One sir. two sir.." and so on.
On every 'sir' a special action (overhand etc.) would be performed, the winner being whoever could reach the highest number without missing a catch.

Meanwhile the wee-fellows (boys) might be kicking a football, 'scrapping', trying to make home-made go-karts go, or something. While some games such as the above were gender-specific, boys and girls would sometimes hang out together, kidding back and forth under the lampposts, chasing and hiding in groups or competing in activities in the swingpark. Once there was a play-off between boy and girl champions at jumping off a swing at its highest point and seeing how far you could jump. The boy won the token prize (choice of a penny toffee or Xcel chewing gum from Rossie's on Bayhead), but not by much (and the girl claimed to prefer the second choice anyway).

From time to time a mini-craze would take hold: hula-hoops; a version of hopscotch called 'Beds'; 'Truth, dare or promise'; slides and snowballs in the few really snow-and-icy winters; making 'spoogers' (water-pistols) out of lemon-shaped Jif juice dispensers...

On Sundays, of course, the most innocent forms of play (as well as all work - absolutely no washing out on the lines) were barred by majority public opinion, and even quite small children who ventured on frivolous make-believe in their own back gardens on the Sabbath risked solemn admonition from the peer group. On one memorable occasion a little friend hurled the scandalised accusation at one of Calum's daughters: "Your mother was singing on Sunday!" The defensive assertion that she was singing hymns didn't cut it, only psalms in proper places of worship were allowed. It was likewise considered scandalous by some when the Church of Scotland (Martin's Memorial) Sunday School summer treat was diverted to the cinema because it was too wet for a picnic, the 'pictures' being the work of the devil:"Surely the Minister wouldn't allow that?"

All the same another game involved guessing the name of the filmstar the other team was supposedly thinking of from shouted initials - DD could be Diana Dors or Doris Day - and popular songs of the time like the latter's 'Que sera, sera' were sung happily (except on Sundays), There were few counter-attractions to rival calling on friends and going out to play - television did not reach the island until 1959 - but plenty of influences from popular culture in the world at large, what with the Picture House, radio, Gazette, Sunday Post (but not until Monday) and the Weekly News (Saturday), not to mention relatives and visitors from Away.

Cat on Peatstack
Kennedy Terrace, Stornoway, 1959

Quite a few people had peats - renting a peatbank and going through the laborious process of cutting by hand, drying and turning in stages and conveying the peats to the roadside before they were taken home by lorry. On a fine summer evening this would be the occasion of a more traditional-seeming, almost 'folklorique' scene with neighbours, including children, rallying round and helping to carry the peats from the lorry in wheelbarrows and buckets, to be built into a stack near the back door by those most skilled in that art. The resulting tiredness, heat and dust were mitigated by the reward of tea and cake in the kitchen. 

Calum's and Peggy's second daughter (left) and friend
in the garden backing on to 'Macninch's Park'

A few years on, with big sister's friend
in the same garden, nearer the house

Behind the Smiths' block and the next one there was a large field, now built over, known as Macninch's Park, extending to Goathill across present-day Balmerino Drive. The gardens backed on to it, and the fences were easy to get through, to enjoy the pastoral setting and pick wildflowers, or make 'houses' in the long grass and among grain-stalks, or just for a short-cut. Capturing bees in jamjars (albeit with air-holes and flower-heads supplied) was popular for a time until discouraged by Calum on the grounds that these useful insects should be left to go about their business, When the field was being used for cattle, cows and the occasional bull would come up to the fence and accept offers of cabbage leaves through the widely-spaced wire, it is to be hoped without coming to too much harm. Some years a corncrake could be heard on summer nights, its distinctive 'skraak' quite loud in the back bedroom.

Other downside aspects, apart from the religious repression, were inevitable, squabbles, rivalries, name-calling, gangings-up and so on being more or less endemic among bunches of kids, and these were normal enough kids whatever their denominational (if any) background. It would perhaps be a mistake to depict any childhood as an unblemished idyll, and this was far from such, but there were certainly good points about it. In many respects girls and boys could have, by modern standards, a remarkable amount of unsupervised freedom, running round the streets till all hours in the long summer evenings, and often well after dark in the winter, in reasonable expectation of safety.

No.38 and the rest of its block in 2017.
Houses on what used to be Macninch's Park can be seen in the background.

Kennedy Terrace runs SW-NE roughly parallel to Westview Terrace,
with offshoots (blank on map), square and cul-de-sac

From Leyton to Stornoway to Dartmoor... A CO's journey.

The Middlesex Appeal Tribunal records, as noted previously, are a valuable resource for historians interested in the Conscientious Objectors (COs) of the First World War, often providing appellants' accounts of motivation, beliefs and political affinity in their own words. For the most part, however,  such material is not available for other parts of the country, including areas of London which were located in the county of  Essex.

Exceptionally, one CO from what is now the London Borough of Waltham Forest does have an appeal file, because by 1916 he  had moved to the Isle of Lewis. In Scotland, not only were the records for Lothain and Peebles pteserved as the example set (like Middlesex for England), those for Lewis also happened fortuitously to survive.

58 Borthwick Road

In 1911, according to the Census, Charles Record at 19 was a 'Servant In Training For Teacher', living with his parents and 18-year-old sister Gladys, an 'Elementary [Primary School] Student Teacher' at 58 Borthwick Road, Stratford. His parents were east-enders, father a 'Decorative Japanner' from Bethnal Green, mother from Stepney. Charles and Gladys were born in Wanstead Slip. 

Leyton was a local government district in southwest Essex, England, from 1873 to 1965. It included the neighbourhoods of Leyton, Leytonstone and Cann Hall. It now forms the southernmost part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest [...] To the south, the parish of Wanstead formed a long protrusion known as the Wanstead Slip, which extended to the marshes of the River Lea and divided Leyton from West Ham.  

Five years later he was a science teacher in the Nicolson Institute, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, living at 28 Point Street in the town. By then the school was well established and prestigious, producing high-achievers who went on to successful careers in the wider world. In 1914 the school magazine, according to a recent historian, reported that since 1898 nearly 100 (99) former pupils had graduated from Scottish universities. Science, though, was a comparatively recent addition to the curriculum, which may explain why at least one of its teachers came from so far away. 

In January 1893, the then headmaster, Mr Forbes, was placed in charge of the new Secondary department which introduced the teaching of Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Geography, History, English, French, German, Music, Domestic Economy, Drawing and Needlework. 

In 1907, with a school roll of more than 800, a decision was made to erect a new building. The new building was opened in 1910 - built with the aid of a £7,000 grant from the Scottish Education department - and incorporated five classrooms, a science laboratory, technical workshop and art room. 

Point Street is towards the south-west, near 'Stornoway Port Authority'

What Charles did and had done to him in the war has already been looked at in some detail, along with a very few other COs from the island. One of those, Murdo Macleod, had his appeal hearing heard on the same day as Charles, and was later sent to the same regiment (the Seaforth Highlanders) and court-martialled in the same place (Ripon). It would be interesting to know how those two young men, united in their determination but widely divergent in their beliefs and background, got along together in their shared adversity.

  Charles Record, Stornoway, originally from Essex, is on the Pearce CO Register 

Became an Absentee (i.e. left his place of residence, probably when the appeal was refused). 

Was arrested 30.6.16

Drafted into the Seaforth Highlanders (having refused non-combatant service) 

Court Martial at Ripon,14.7.16 - sentenced to 1 year imprisonment

Served time in Northallerton (Civil Prison) and Durham (Civil Prison).

Came before the Central Tribunal at Wormwood Scrubs, 1.9.16 - found to be CO class A, genuine

Referred to Brace Committee for work under the  Home Office Scheme

In work centres at Wakefield, 12-10-16, and Dartmoor, 28.8.17 and 21.2.1918.

His motivation is said to be 'religious', but his own words in the Appeal Tribunal file make it clear that he also saw himself as an Iinternationalist. 

Appeal against Conscription, 1916 by Charles Record, Conscientious Objector

The file is prefaced by a handwritten 2-page dated 20^th May 1916 protesting against the decision of the Appeal tribunal.

Notice of Appeal. (Stamped, Stornoway, 20-3-16

(2) Grounds on which appeal made: My application was for total exemption on grounds of conscientious objection. By granting me exemption from combatant service the Local Tribunal apparently admitted my sincerity.

  I appeal for total exemption; so that I may not be compelled to assist in the taking of life.

  In particular I appeal for exemption from work involving the taking of the Military Oath. At present I can disobey laws which conflict with my conscience, if willing to suffer the penalties. By taking the oath I surrender that right, by solemnly promising to obey all commands of the military authorities; thereby handing over my conscience to them. This is quite impossible for me; especially since I object to the purpose for which the military organisation exists, & therefore to most of its requirements. Even though I might never receive a command which conflicted with my conscience, I cannot make the offer to discard my convictions.

Charles Record         

March 4^th 1916

Reasons for the decision of the Local (Stornoway) Tribunal

The Tribunal having heard the Applicant refused the Application, but recommended him for non-combatant service.    [2-3-16]

For Appeal Tribunal (Ross & Cromarty and Sutherland, Lewis Section)

            The Tribunal having heard the appellant refused the Appeal.

Leave to appeal [further, to Central Tribunal] was also refused, the appellant not having stated any grounds to justify persuasion.

Stornoway 31^st March 1916. 

Reasons in support of the [original] Application 

  As a Christian I cannot undertake the responsibility of inflicting death.

   My international ideals convince me that I ought not to take part in international disputes which involve the killing of my fellows.

   I believe all occupations designed to assist the military authorities to partake of the same nature as actual combatant service. 

[A written statement (in duplicate) [on file] accompanies the forms].

Charles Record         

Decision of the Tribunal: [against which the appeal was lodged]

Stornoway 2^nd March 1916

The Tribunal refused the Application and recommend that applicant be relieved from combatant service and enrolled at once in the R.A.M.C. [Royal Army Medical Corps].

John Mackenzie Chairman.     

The penalties Charles duly underwent in accordance with his conscience included some of the most rigorous prisons and Work Centres but unlike some.COs he survived and was evidently able to resume a normal life and exercise his profession. In early 1919 he married Ethel Betts near his old home and birthplace in Lonodn (West Ham registration district).  

1939

318 Almondbury Bank , Huddersfield C.B., Yorkshire (West Riding), England
Record Household of 6 people
Charles Physics Teacher, Tech.College  b.30-10-1891

Ethel b.1890 unpaid domestic duties

Another (record withheld)

Kathleen (Whiteley) Record b.1922 At schoool
(Kathleen Record m.Kenneth Whiteley, Huddersfield 1944)

Annie [m.s.Wood] Record  b.1865 Widowed unpaid domestic duties
Emily S. Record Waistcoat maker retired b.1860 

The 1939 Register of Electors finds him living in Huddersfield and employed as a Physics Teacher in the Technical College. Others in the household are his wife Ethel, their daughter Kathleen, born in 1922, his widowed mother Annie and (probably) an unmarried paternal aunt, and someone else whose details are not (yet) available. According to the most likely death record, Crewe 1967, he lived to the age of 75.

Conscientious Objectors in First World War Walthamstow

A search on the online database of First World War Conscientious Objectors (Pearce CO Register) using keyword 'Walthamstow' brings up 108 records. While not quite all of these include an address in the area - it was a location for enlistment in the RAMC - it is probably safe to say that about 100 men resident in or from present-day E17 (more or less) felt strongly enough about opposing the war to take a stand openly against it, with all the risks to freedom, health, livelihood and sanity that that entailed. (What happened to some of those who enlisted in Walthamstow is another story.)

Although transcripts of all the records are freely available, the amount of information given on each can vary from brief details of name and reported arrest to a thorough if shorthand account including age, address, occupation, motivation, courts martial, prison, work camp, date of discharge and occasionally subsequent career. Sources are supplied in all cases. A selecction has been made here, to give an impression of what may be found, picking out some who stand out in one or more ways as being out of the common even in this uncommon company, For example, we have several sets of brothers; a number who were politically motivated and/or proclaimed themselves without religion, knowing how this would prejudice the tribunals which considered their claims for exemption; and others who were sent to do alternativeservice at notorious work centres like Dyce camp, Dartmoor and Wakefield. These categories may overlap to a considerable extent.

Notes and excerpts or brief summaries of key points from the online transcripts

Brothers

Archie G Bussey b.1895.  27, Thornhilll Road, Leyton. Shop Asistant, athletic outfitters.
CM (Court Martial) Hurdcott 14.8.16 - 6 months HL (with hard labour) commuted to 112 days. 

Henry E.Bussey b.1885 same address Engineer's fitter, railway company, NCF (No-Conscription Fellowship - listed as a member in 1915). Wartime experiences not on record.

Walter J.Bussey b.1887 same address Butcher, journeyman. 
CM (Court Martial) Hurdcott 15.8.16 - 6 months HL (with hard labour) com.to 112 days. 

George Augustus Albert Cole b.1892. 37, Brunner Road.  Engineer.  Non-sectarian; Trade unionist (ASE), NCF. 
Absolutist - i.e. refused to accept ECS (exemption from combatant servie only) 
CM (Court Martial) Sutton Veny 28.10.16 - 112 days HL, Wormwood Scrubs 
CM Newton Abbott 27.2.17 - 2 yrs.HL com.to 6 months Winchester CP (Civil Prison) 
CM  Blackdown 1.8.17 - 18 months HL Winchester CP 
CM Blackdown 22.11.18 - 2yrs.HL Winchester CP  
By Jan.1919 had served 3/4 sentences and more than two years. Winchester CP (Civil Prison) - discharged by order of Secretary of State 24.3.19 - under the 'two year rule'..

Charles Cole's discharge authorised, with others

Charles Edward Cole b.1897 same address Engineer.  NCF. 
Absolutist, Fugitive. 

CM (Court Martial) Sheerness 9.7.18 - 18 months com. 1 yr., to Wormwood S.; 

CM (Court Martial) Sheerness 3.1.19 - 2 yrs.HL (With hard labour); 

Discharged 25.6.19 

"... approval of the discharge... of the men named... who have been convicted of offences against discipline which they pleaded were committed on the grounds of conscience."

Alfred Rogers b.1892. 41 Pretoria Rd. Gas fitter, Gas, Light & Coke Company 

Accepted WNI (Pelham) (Work of National Importance under the Pelham Committee) 22.5.16

5.6.16 Essex County Appeal Tribunal approve his work as WNI - to stay where he is.
.

Frederick James Rogers b.1886 same address Plumber's mate, sanitary work 

WNI. 18.5.16 Referred to University College Hospital and engaged at 28/- per week.  

60, Maynard Road

 Splett, Alfred Ernest b.1895. 60 Maynard Rd.  Clerk. FOR (Fellowship of   Reconciliation), 'Quaker'. Absolutist 

 CM Edenbridge 18.12.16 - 9 months HL Wormwood S.; 

 CM Reading 4.5.17 - 112 days HL Wandsworth CP (Civil Prison).

 CM Reading 11.8.17 - 2yrs.HL Wandsworth CP (

 CM  Reading 6.7.18 - 112 days HL and 15.10.18 - 1yr.HL  
Wandsworth CP  By Jan.1919 had served 3 sentences and two years. 
8.4.19 released by order of Secretary of State
21.5.19 to Pentonville [?] 

Post-war work in Germany with Friends' War Victims Relief Service, Nov.1919   to Aug.1920

 Arthur Edward Splett b.1900 same address

 CM Reading 6.7.18 - 112 days HL - Wormwood S. 
(same day and place as his older brother but sent to a different prison). 

CM Reading 15.10.18 - 1yr.HL.Released at 6.00 on 8.4.19 (two year rule).

Post-war (?) Friends' War Victims Relief Service, London office.

Wilhelm Emil Splett b.1893  same address  Clerk. 'Quaker'. Absolutist.

CM Edenbridge 20.12.16 - 9 months HL Wormwood S.

CM Reading 4.5.17 - 112 days HL Wandsworth CP 

CM (Reading 11.8.17 - 2yrs.HL Wandsworth CP 14.8.17 - 4.7.18 to Dartmoor.

'At some time he worked in Friends' War Victims Relief Service London office'

Splett brothers: 'both parents German'. Another with German connections -

Harry George Hodson b.1883.  52, The Drive.  Clerk, Hodson & Co. oil merchants.

MST (Military Service Tribunal) Walthamstow. 18.8.16 appealed as a CO

 - recommended for internment because of his family's German connections  

Wife and mother both German; 'his uncle, Dr. Weigert, Imperial Public Prosecutor in Germany.'

Source: Essex Newsman 19.8.16

Note: Internment - "The British government was initially reluctant to impose widespread internment in the United Kingdom during the First World War, choosing instead to restrict the activities of nationals of enemy nations residing in the UK and interning only those suspected of being a threat to national security. Public anti-German sentiment peaked with the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915, and the subsequent rioting forced the government to implement a general program of internment."

Political/Non-religious

Arthur James Elsdon b,1895. 35, Westbury Rd.  Clerk/Civil Servant. BSP (British Socialist Party) Walthamstow branch; 'Quaker'; NCF   
Absentee - AWOL/Deserter. Called up 12.6.16 Stratford East, London. 
Posted to NCC (Non-Combatant Corps) (4 Eastern); 
CM Seaford 23.6.16 - 112 days HL Maidstone CP (Civil Prison)
CM 2.4.18 Gravesend - 2yrs.HL com.1yr
18.4.18 Guard Room Milton Barracks, Gravesend. 
Maidstone CP 27.6.16 to HOS (Home Office Scheme) Dyce 22.8.16
Transfer to Army Reserve Class W 23.9.16; Oct.1916 Dyce Camp (photo.80)
Maidstone CP (Civil Prison) 10.4.18 to 1.2.19.

Albert Isaac Field b.1893. 28 St. Mary's [St. Mary] Rd.  NCF, 'Atheist'/'Agnostic'. Absolutist 

CM Winchester 14.4.17 - 2yrs.HL 

Wormwood S. 26.4.17 to 29.8.17 to Wandsworth CP -  29.8.18, 

6.1.19 discharged under 1913 Illness Act (as used against the Suffragettes)

Returned 19.3.19, out again 21.3.19.Hunger strike 4.9.18 to 7.9.18, force fed 3 times 

By Jan.1919 had served 1 sentence and almost two years. 

Released April 1919 under two year rule.

Note: "The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, was an Act of Parliament passed in Britain ... in 1913."

William Henry Fitzpatrick b.1891. 40 Westbury Rd., Hoe St.. Clerk - mercantile.  NCF - Leyton Branch Secretary (1916)   Motivation 'Moral and religious' 

WNI  10.5.16 to 11.9.18 Forestry and market garden work. 

Illness - Developed chronic pulmonary TB 1917, unable to work.

William Ernest Jeanes b.1892. 19, Ritchings Avenue.  Railway Clerk. NCF, Atheist  
Refused to sign army papers. Central Tribunal at Wandsworth MP (Military Prison) 9.8.16
 - judged CO class B. 'unconvincing'. 
NCC (Non-Combatant Corps) (4 Eastern) Stratford, London 9.6.16; 
CM Seaford 19.6.16 - 112 days HL  Maidstone CP
25.9.16 returned to duty from prison and sent on furlough to return when ordered; Transfer to Army Reserve Class W.- HOS (The Home Office Scheme, administered by the Brace Committee) 23.2.17; 28.8.17 at Dartmoor.

Note: Conscience without relogion was a concept seldom recognsied by the tribunals.

15 Stainforth Rd.

Noel Miller b.1896. 15, Stainforth Road.  BSP (British Socialist Party); 'Religion: None',; NCF  

CM Fovant 17.6.16 - 112 days HL Winchester CP 

HOS Oct.1916 Dyce Camp (photo.77); 28.8.17 at Dartmoor. 

James Mylles b.1880. From Brixton but  'Discharge address,1919' 46, Elmsdale Road, Walthamstow. ILP (Independent Labour Party), Quaker, Absolutist
Absentee, Arrested 12.5.17, Camberwell Police Court 14.5.17
 - fined and handed over,
CM Hounslow 24.5.17 - 112 days HL, Wormwood S.
CM Hounslow 6.9.17 - 2yrs. HL, to Pentonville CP. 
 - to be released April 1919 under two year rule, Discharged 24.4.19.

Henry George Phillips b.1895. 57, Woodlands Rd., Wood St.  Cabinet maker.  Trade unionist - ASC&J; NCF (No-Conscription Fellowship); Atheist.  

NCC (Non-Combatant Corps) (4 Eastern) Seaford 

CM 24.6.16 - 6 months com.to 112 days, Maidstone CP

1.7.16 to HOS - Dyce camp, Aberdeen 23.8.16 - returned to Maidstone 5.9.16 - re-committed. 

CM Coventry 10.11.16 - 112 days HL Wormwood S.; 

CM Dublin 28.2.17 - 2 years HL com.1 yr.

CM (Dublin 10.1.18 - 2 years HL  hard Walton CP, Liverpool, 

Hunger strike 26.7.18 to 4.8.18, force fed 22 times; Preston CP (hunger strike 10.8.18. 

By Jan.1919 had served 4 sentences and more than two years.

Illness - released on health grounds  

Note: "The Non-Combatant Corps is one of the least-known parts of the Conscientious Objector story... Neither one thing nor the other, NCC men had to define their own labour and resistance according to their own moral compass. 
The NCC arose from the Military Service Act which, in [its] provision for Conscientious Objectors to be granted “Exemption from Combatant Service Only”, created a new type of soldier by the thousand - the official non-combatant."

Supporter

Reginald William Sorenson, 1891-1971. The Pioneers' Hostel, 23, Highbury Place Highbury  NCF (No-Conscription Fellowship); North London Herald League; ILP (Independent Labour Party); Minister of the Free Christian Church, Walthamstow  Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Southampton, 1923,1924, Elected, West Leyton, 1929. Writings in Liddle Sorenson CO/089 Typescript recollections; CO supporter and anti-war campaigner with NLHL. No evidence of his being called up and becoming a CO. Post-war: Labour MP West Leyton 1921-31, 1935-50, Leyton 1950-64; created life peer 1964. 
 (The database includes supporters of COs as well as those granted or claiming that status.) 

"Reginald Sorenson was not a Conscientious Objector, as his work as a Minister of the Free Christian Church in Walthamstow granted him Absolute Exemption under the Military Service Act. Even though he was exempt, he still felt that Conscription was an injustice. Reginald became an active supporter and campaigner on behalf of Conscientious Objectors as part of the North London Herald League and the Independent Labour Party. As a prominent local pacifist who supported the work of the No-Conscription Fellowship he was often invited to speak at the Herald League's Anti-War meetings. After 1918 he would carry on his pacifism, working as both a peace campaigner and as an MP for seven full terms."    

Note: For the North London Herald League and more opposition to the war, see 'Don't Be a Soldier' by Ken Weller (available online). Don't be a Soldier! The Radical Anti-war Movement in North London, 1914-18, Journeyman Press/London History Workshop Centre, 1985. 

Sent to Dyce Camp (as well as others listed above) - 

George Edmund Oliphant b.1890. 15, Ravenswood Rd. Clerk/Warehouseman. IBSA (International Bible Students Association - Jehaovah's Witnesses) 
NCC (Non-Combatant Corps) (4 Eastern) Seaford CM 16.6.16 - 98 days HL 
Maidstone CP - 20.6.16 to HOS, 21.8.16 to Dyce camp, Aberdeen 
13.11.16 been at Longsight, 'now at Warwick'; Dartmoor August 1917

48 Grosvenor Park Rd.

John Augustus Pfeil b.1895. 48 Grosvenor Park Rd. Clerk. IBSA.

NCC Warley barracks, to (4 Eastern) Seaford and (as for Oliphant)

CM 16.6.16 - 6 months HL com.to 98 days HL 

Maidstone CP 21.8.16 to Dyce camp, Aberdeen; 

13.11.16 been at Longsight, now at Warwick; 28.8.17 at Dartmoor.

(The surname suggests a possible German connection here too).

Annie L Rollins

CLEANER

of PLASTIC

FORKS 

lived here in 1979

The house where Pfeil lived already has a blue plaque,
of Walthamstow's speciality 'ordinary people' type,
on window first-floor right in pictures

Frank Pryer b.1893. 12 Downsfield Rd. Wesleyan; FOR - Dartmoor Branch; NCF

CM Fovant 27.6.16 - 6 months HL com to 112 days 

Winchester CP 3.7.16 discharged 25.8.16

HOS Dyce camp, Aberdeen; Belmont Workhouse 27.1.17

Dartmoor 1917; Brockenhurst 9.7.17; Wakefield.

Examples of WNI (Work of National Importance)/ HOS Alternative work

H G Gresham  Walthamstow Shop Assistant  
WNI 5.7.16 to 19.12.16 Farm and garden work at Claybury Asylum 
- dismissed when Asylum decided not to employ COs 
Dairy farm work, Chigwell; Illness - classed 'CIII' (C3, i.e. far from A1 fitness in military terms).
- offered light work in a Controlled Establishment  
("The Munitions of War Act was passed in 1915 and gave the newly created Ministry of Munitions power to declare factories controlled establishments..").

Note: Unlike Claybury, several asylums did accept COs on WNI; others had COs as patients.

A G Hills  Walthamstow  Stock-keeper, motor driver  
WNI 4.7.16 to 19.9.18 City of London Asylum; 
(also with) Messrs Maw Son & Sons as engine driver, 
and mechanic at Messrs John Sutton, farmers.

Stafford William High b,1887. 45 Park Avenue  
CM Shoreham, Peas Pottage Camp 8.8.16 - 112days HL  Lewes CP 
HOS 8.9.16 at Denton, Newhaven; 17.1.18 at Knutsford
Friends' War Victims Relief Service, London office   

Arthur Frank Hodby b.1888. 57 Coleridge Rd. Chief of Repairs Dept., Rotax Motor Co.
WNI 19.5.16 to 16.1.17 Found work at British Dyes, July 1916, 
 but unable to find lodgings; growing tomatoes in Chingford. 

116 Beulah Rd.

Bertram T Philpott b.1893. 116 Beulah Rd. Civil service clerk (2nd div.) GPO   

WNI 31.7.16 to 11.9.18 Farm work, Spalding, Lincolnshire.

From Jan.1917 tomato growing at Loughton, Essex; 

5.9.18 left without permission and ordered back. 

49 Beulah Rd.

Percy John L Rolph b.1888. 49, Beulah Rd. ('probable family address') Chief audit clerk, wholesale meat/fish merchants  

WNI 18.1.17 to 13.3.17 Employers argue that he is an 

indispensable worker - to stay where he is. 

Alfred George R Serpell  b.1887. 37 Selborne Rd. Photographer, family business 
WNI 17.5.16 to 20.9.16 Farm work in Devon, at Ilfracombe, then Cullompton; later at Stanford le Hope.

  

Horace Walter Lerpiniere b.1891. 69, Greenleaf Rd. Ophthalmic optician.

WNI (Pelham) 8.5.16 to 17.10.18 Forestry work near Exeter; In poor health.
Labouring work with Messrs Cadburys from Sept.1917.

Illness - nervous breakdown.

Note: Questions were asked in Parliament about the apparently punitive use of 'alternative work' schemes, with professionally qualified COs often being assigned to manual labour.
Another optician, from Ealing, was assigned to the NCC (see above) and set to loading ammunition before being sent to a work camp. His protests about this, in his own words, can be read in the records of the Middlesex Appeals Tribunal. Unfortunately for researchers, the County Appeal Tribunal for Walthamstow seems to have been Essex, so that the files were destroyed (like almost all others apart from Middlesex and some in Scotland).

And finally, a short military career -

Stanley Thomas Smith b.1888. 37 West End Ave. Leyton  
Court Martial Portsmouth 28.6.16 - 2 yrs.HL com.to 22 month 
Winchester CP (Civil Prison) 16.8.16 transfer to Sussex from Portsmouth
Discharged 6.9.16 - HOS 20.10.16 Denton, Newhaven. 
  

Note: Work campsi in Sussex are recalled in a 13-minute BBC clip.