MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT |
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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | |
| HENRY HARRIS CARVER 1889 - 1962 |
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| Henry Carver was working as a Bank Clerk in Wandsworth in 1916 and in many ways had the typical wartime experience of an Absolutist Conscientious Objector. He would have been called before either the Wandsworth or Putney Tribunal, but the first currently known record of his experiences are of his arrest in August 1916. As he was arrested, tried and fined as an absentee from the army, his Tribunal application must have been unsuccessful in securing the exemption he was legally allowed under the Military Service Act 1916. After his arrest, Henry was taken under escort to the Kingston on Thames Barracks, supposedly to become a soldier in the 2/5 Durham Light Infantry. Henry rejected this presumption that he would become a willing soldier and disobeyed orders - soon finding himself under court martial on the 25th August 1916. He was sentenced to two years hard Labour to be served in Northallerton, but his relatively late arrest meant that he was instead sent to Wormwood Scrubs to have his case heard by the Central Tribunal. This hearing accepted that he was a genuine Conscientious Objector and Henry was passed suitable for the Home Office Scheme, a compromise system set up to remove COs from prison and put them to "useful" work. Conditions for COs on the scheme were variable, and Henry spent two years at Dartmoor Camp where he would have laboured at heavy, punitive jobs while living in the converted prison. By June 1918 Henry was allowed to look for employment outside the bounds of the Home Office Scheme camps, provided that he adhered to the sometimes strict rules of the scheme. Like many other COs, the end of the war did not mean his release, and, while working outside of the camps, it was not until the 28th of April 1919 that Henry was finally discharged.
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