Conscientious Objectors in WW1

Conscientious Objector (CO): a person who, for reasons of their conscience, object to joining the armed forces.

Pacifist: a person who believes that war and violence are unjustifiable.

During the First World War, there were thousands of men who refused to enlist or threw down their weapons after declaring that they were a conscientious objector or a pacifist.  Many COs and pacifists joined the medical forces or were sentenced to prison. However, soldiers that became COs or pacifist were court martialled for disobeying orders or disserting the army. The worst that it could happen to these men was death, generally by firing squad, which regularly consisted of their former comrades and even friends.

The biggest reason for objection was religious views. Although most of the men who signed up to the army did class themselves as  Christian, a few refused to enlist as they agreed with and obeyed the biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. Many of these religious pacifists were Quakers.

The Public’s Reaction to COs and Pacifists

The ‘cowards’ upset lots of people because they felt that it was unfair that these men and their families wouldn’t suffer with the loss of a loved one. This feeling and view was particularly rife in the minds of the families who had lost husbands, fathers, brothers, sons etc. Other people disliked COs and pacifists because they felt that these men weren’t doing their patriotic duty of fighting for Great Britain. Not only did it anger strangers who didn’t know any COs, it could also be embarrassing to the families because World War I propaganda drummed into people that their loved ones needed to go to war as a symbol of affection, patriotic duty, masculinity and bravery; in actual fact, you had to be just as brave to contradict the law and state that you were a COs. As a result, neighbors and communities whom they had grown up knowing shunned the COs.

White Feathers

In 1914, Admiral Charles Fitzgerald sent thirty women out into Folkston in Kent with the mission to hand a white feather to any man not wearing a uniform. This was a public humiliation to these men. The white feather was a sign of cowardice. It was so embarrassing for a man to receive a feather, and this gave these physically harmless objects the power to send a man to war.

The recruitment office had turned down Rifleman James Cutmoore, in 1914 because he was short sighted. Then he was saved by conscription in 1916 because he had three young daughters. Yet, as a result of not being clad in uniform, Cutmoore had been handed a white feather by a woman when he was on his way home from work. Due to the humiliation, he enlisted the very next day. Cutmoore was accepted because by then, the army didn’t care about having the fittest men, they just needed men to take a bullet. James Cutmoore died of his wounds on 28th March 1918. This innocent man’s nine year old daughter was so affected by her father’s enlistment, that when she was suffering from sever dementia, she couldn’t remember her own children’s names, just the memories of her father’s suffering of shell shock and the news of his death. And the person she blamed the most was that woman who had given her father that dreaded feather.

Another story that I read was an account of the white feather was given by a young boy who was fifteen and had just been discharged from hospital after suffering from a fever; he met a group of four girls and he said this: "I explained to them that I had been in the army and been discharged, and I was still only 16. Several people had collected around the girls and there was giggling, and I felt most uncomfortable and ... very humiliated." The next day, he went straight to the recruitment office to enlist, yet again.

How the Government Dealt with COs and Pacifists

Up until 2^nd March 1916, joining the armed forces was a choice, but then the government made it compulsory for every man aged between 18 and 41 to enlist, or they risked imprisonment or being forced into the army.

There were three categories in which the government placed conscientious objectors:

1.    Abolitionists were men who were firmly opposed to war. These men were unwilling to perform any task or occupation that would in any way benefit the war effort.
2.    Alternatives were men who wouldn’t do anything to do with the military service but would willingly assist in another division that was outside of military control.
3.    Non-combatants were men who would join the army on the basis that they would not be trained to use arms or to fight.

However some COs were refused tribunals were forced into the army. Therefore by refusing to obey any commands, they would be punished in accordance to the military. This included being court martialled and it could result in Field Punishment 1 (to be tied to a fixed object such as a fence in the crucifix position for up to two hours for at least twenty- eight days. This had replaced flogging.) or imprisonment or even death. In 1916, 34 COs were marched in front of 600 soldiers and they were all condemned to death by firing squad exempt the last man who General Haig sentenced to ten years imprisonment. 

 

In response to the COs, the government also printed anti conscientious objector post cards that had humiliating cartoons printed on them.  This also made the general public despise the men as the cartoons showed men who lacked traditional masculinity as the COs.

However in total, the amount of men recorded who were conscientious objectors after 1916 was roughly 16,000.