Defying conscription

Published on Saturday 26 August 2006 00:47

Q There is a story in our family that my estranged great uncle was a conscientious objector in the First World War. Are there records that might help verify this? He was born and lived in the Aberdeen area. S Marshall (by e-mail)

A Compulsory military service (conscription) for all men aged 18-50 in Britain was introduced in 1916 with the Military Service Act. As well as conscripting men, the act also allowed those called up to apply for an exemption on grounds of occupation, hardship, ill-health or conscientious objection. Each application for exemption was assessed by a local Military Service Tribunal, which could grant the applicant an exemption certificate - either an absolute exemption or one that included certain qualifications.

Conscientious objection was not defined by the Military Service Act, but a government circular issued under the act made reference to those whose "objection genuinely rests on religious or moral convictions". This meant in practice that many who objected were from Christian denominations that saw taking life as wrong. Many also objected on political grounds. They were generally unpopular with the public, who often saw them as shirking their duty to fight.

It has been estimated that there were around 16,000 conscientious objectors, although only around 300 of these were exempted from military service altogether. Many of the others were ordered into non-combatant military service and even full military service itself. Those who refused to go into military service were often imprisoned or sent to work camps, and there was one of these at Dyce, near Aberdeen. Many conscientious objectors also volunteered for or accepted various kinds of civilian work and many who were imprisoned took this option as a condition of release. All who were still in prison at the end of the war were released by August 1919.

Very few records survive. In 1921 the Ministry of Health in London decided that all papers relating to individual cases should be destroyed. Two sample sets of files remain, one each for England and Scotland. The National Archives of Scotland holds the records of the Lothian and Peebles Tribunal (ref: HH30) as well as a file relating to a small number of conscientious objectors in civil custody (ref: HH31/29). There are no surviving records for the Aberdeen area.

• For more information on the plight of conscientious objectors, consult Conscription and Conscience: A History 1916-1919 by John W Graham. If you think your relative may have been imprisoned, local prison records are also held by the National Archives of Scotland. Visit www.nas.gov.uk