John Dunbar was a member of the Swedenborgian sect, a dissenting non-conformist Christian group with a particular focus on mysticism that, in the early years of the 20th century, had an increasing presence in and around Glasgow and West Scotland. John was a lay preacher for the sect, and this strong faith most likely informed his views of the war, leading to his decision to reject conscription as a Conscientious Objector after the introduction of the Military Service Act in 1916.

John would have applied for exemption from conscription at the local Paisley Tribunal, most likely in mid 1916, but it appears that they did not grant him an exemption he was able to accept as, in September 1916 after refusing call-up, he was arrested as an absentee from the Army. Tried and found guilty shortly after, John was handed over to the Army under escort, arriving at the Redford Barracks in Edinburgh in early October 1916. His posting to the Argyll and Sutherland Highland Regiment shows that his Tribunal hearing had dismissed his application out of hand. Receiving no exemption whatsoever, John had been forcibly sent to a combatant regiment.

At the Redford Barracks, John would have been expected to become a fighting soldier, obeying orders that would lead to him going against his conscientious decision to reject warfare. Instead, he decided to actively reject both the Army and the conscription system and refused to obey any orders. This stand against army discipline quickly landed him in trouble, and John faced a court martial on the 24th October 1916, which sentenced him to two months hard labour, to be served in Calton Prison Edinburgh.

Calton Prison was known as one of the harshest prisons in Scotland. It was cold, utterly silent and punishing, with starvation diets and mind-numbing physical labour the order of the day. It’s no wonder that when John was transferred temporarily to Wormwood Scrubs, London and offered a place on the Home Office Scheme that he took it up. The Scheme offered John a place in a work camp, away from the isolation and privation of prison, in exchange for agreeing to do some form of supposedly useful physical work.

John was sent initially to the large Home Office Camp at Dartmoor in January 1917, and there joined the Dartmoor branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a Christian Pacifist organisation still working for peace today. He remained in Dartmoor for a year before a transfer to the Knutsford camp. He most likely stayed working on the Scheme until demobilisation and a return home in early 1919.