Conscientious Objectors
The Military Service Act of 1916 (with later amendments) introduced compulsory military service to Britain (but not Ireland) for all men aged 18-50. It also allowed for applications to be made for exemption from the call-up on grounds of occupation, hardship, ill-health or conscientious objection. A system of Military Service Tribunals was set up to assess each application, and either refuse it or grant the applicant an exemption certificate with or without certain qualifications.
The granting of exemption as a conscientious objector required that the "objection genuinely rests on religious or moral convictions". In practice many were Jehovah's Witnesses, Quakers or other Christian denominations, who simply saw the taking of life as wrong, while others objected to the war on political grounds such as socialism or international brotherhood. Conscientious objectors ("COs" or "conchies") were generally unpopular with the public, the press and the authorities, who saw them at best as unpatriotic shirkers and at worst as subjective revolutionaries.
A Scheme was devised by the Home Office whereby conscientious objectors could be released from prison conditionally upon accepting places in Work Camps or Work Centres; two of these, Dartmoor and Wakefield, were former prisons, adapted for the purpose.
After the end of the war all prison sentences were commuted to time served, and all those convicted were released by August 1919. Descrimination against conscientious objectors after WW1 existed and many had trouble finding jobs.
Absolutists were opposed to conscription as well as war and refused to engage in any form of war work, regardless of the penalty. They would refuse to wear army uniform or even answer call-up papers and inevitably, they were court-martialled and imprisoned.In extreme cases death sentences were passed at court-martial but these were immediately commuted to 10 years imprisonment in a civilian gaol and at least one of these 'absolutists' was held at Wakefield Prison.
WYAS holds some personal records relating to conscientious objectors:
- Norman Sanctuary was imprisoned at Dartmoor Prison during WWI, and the collection(ref: WYAS Bradford WYB8) includes photographers of his fellow internees and an autogragh book
- James Holmes was imprisoned at Wakefield during WWI (ref: WYAS Wakefield WYW1608)
- Miscellaneous items in the Wakefield Corporation collection 1940-1941 (ref. WYAS Wakefield WWD1 Box11)
For furhter information on Conscientious Objectors see The National Archives