Over 3,000,000 men volunteered to serve in the British Armed Forces during the first two years of the war. Due to heavy losses at the Western Front the government decided in 1916 to introduce conscription (compulsory enrollment). At first only single men were called up but at the end of the war married men of fifty were being conscripted into the army. Conscription caused real hardships for the British people. For example, in November 1917 a widow asked Croydon Military Tribunal to let her keep her eleventh son, to look after her. The other ten were all serving in the British armed forces. (?) A man from Barking asked for his nine son to be exempted as his eight other sons were already in the British Army. The man's son was given three months exemption. About 16,000 men refused to fight and these were called conscientious objectors. Most of these men were pacifists, who believed that even during wartime it was wrong to kill another human being. About 7,000 pacifists agreed to perform non-combat service. This usually involved working as stretcher-bearers in the front-line, an occupation that had a very high casualty-rate. Over 1,500 men refused all compulsory service. These men were called absolutists and were usually drafted into military units and if they refused to obey the order of an officer, they were court-martialled. Forty-one absolutists were transferred to France. These men were considered to be on active service and could now be sentenced to death for refusing orders. Others were sentenced to Field Punishment Number One. Those found guilty before being transferred to France were sent to English prisons. Conditions were made very hard for the conscientious objectors and during the war sixty-nine of them died in prison.
Hi John ! Here's an article you may find interesting ... but please remember that that happened over 90 years ago .... and those were different times and the country was at war ! ... if you're interested in finding out more - you could try Googling .... there's a lot of information on the internet about it ! http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/cos/st_co_wwone.html Annie
Hi Annie, Thanks for the website. I have saved it and will read over the next couple of days. I know it was 90 odd years ago and I can understand the hatred of these people by people who had lost love ones, but it is still a lot of prisoners to die in the so called safety of the prison system.
