George was born in Tupwood, Surrey as the second son and one of seven children. An older brother tried to enlist but was rejected as he had weak ankles and couldn’t march. He went to Australia where he drowned. At the age of 16, George’s younger brother falsified his age, enlisted and was injured in Palestine.

George’s father was a gardener and family lived in a tied cottage. His father lost both his job and the home when it became known his son was a conscientious objector.

He was one of many Conscientious Objectors with several different motivations and George was a Christian and an international socialist when he was conscripted in 1916. He would later become a Quaker, when his wartime experiences solidified his pacifism into a lifelong commitment to peace.

After being passed “Exempt from Combatant Service Only” George was ordered to report to Old Hill Barracks and was allocated to the Training Reserves of the Royal West Kent Regiment. The accepting sergeant tried to bribe him to sign up by offering a new uniform and offered to make him a non commissioned officer with two stripes before any undergoing any training. This offer was refused.

With other COs there, their clothing was removed and taken away. They agreed to put on army underclothes, trousers, tunic, shoes and socks but not puttees, hats or shoulder straps. In the guardroom they exchanged their new uniforms with the guards' old ones. The guards were pleased with this exchange as their uniforms were old and dirty. The old uniform George got had a bullet hole in it and he records that one of the guards had lost an eye in service.

On one occasion he refused a drill sergeant's orders, who then told another soldier to tread on George’s heel. This was done very reluctantly, so the sergeant did it very hard. In retaliation, George trod on the sergeant's foot with his heel and the result of this was the army prison.

When a CO faced a court martial, they were charged not with being a conscientious objector, but with not obeying an order. Between 1916 and 1919 George was court marshalled 4 times and received the following punishments:-
- 6 months hard labour – reduced to 112 days
- 42 days detention – pardoned after 28 days
- 1 year hard labour
- 3 years penal servitude – reduced to 2 years hard labour

At the end of one District Court Martial at Dover Castle, he appeared before a Colonel. This officer didn’t want to send George and the other COs back to prison so he sent them all on furlough. They were unable to work and became a financial burden to their families. They were eventually rearrested.

George appeared before a Major at another District Court Martial at Dover Castle for refusing to put on army clothes. The following exchange took place between him and the Major:-

Major "Well, when all is said, I am still of the opinion that conscientious objection is just another name for arrant cowardice"
George replied "And in my opinion Sir, viewing our respective positions, I helpless and in custody, and you sitting here backed by all the authority of the army and government, that is the most insulting and cowardly remark that ever I have heard and you would not dare to repeat it under fair and open conditions outside this camp"
Major screamed "Take him away, and don't put a rag on him. Make him dress himself"

The result of this Court Martial was 2 days in an open sided tent in the camp and then 10 days in an open sided tent on the cliff top at Dover. This was in November and he was dressed only in his underclothes. No one came near him, so, although it is not recorded, it is assumed that George had no food or water during this time. Eventually someone notified the doctor who came to see him. By this time George couldn't speak or stand unaided and the doctor needed help to get him back to the hospital where he eventually recovered. The Major was never seen again at Dover.

George served time in Canterbury, Maidstone, Wormwood Scrubs and Wandsworth prisons, and describes the clothes in Canterbury as shabby dark cloth with white broad arrows here and there. In Canterbury he sewed mail bags alone in his cell in poor light.

He appeared before a Central Military Tribunal while in Wormwood Scrubs prison and was offered a transfer to Wakefield Prison CO Settlement which he refused, because he was of the view that the work there supported the war.

He records that at Wandsworth prison, one of the COs was a skilled organist and played the organ for the chapel services. As the prisoners were entering the chapel the organist played ‘The Internationale’, ‘The Red Flag’, England Arises ‘and ‘Jerusalem’. George assumed that prison guards didn’t know relevance of these songs.

There were a large number of COs in Wandsworth prison and they broke the cell windows so they could talk to each other at night. They were also allowed to associate in the exercise yard and while exercising they all agreed to go on hunger strike. After some weeks they were released under ‘The Cat and Mouse Act’. Before their release, they all agreed that if anyone was rearrested everyone would voluntarily go back to Wandsworth in order to complete their sentences and continue the hunger strike.

Not long after their release, the wife of Ben Harding, a CO from Folkestone, notified them that her husband had been rearrested. On hearing this news George notified the other COs and then went back to Wandsworth. He had to argue to be readmitted, he was and continued the hunger strike. He believed that he was the only CO to return voluntarily to prison. Eventually he was discharged from Wandsworth in 1919 suffering with TB.

He describes the diet in the various prisons as very poor, especially for those, who like him were vegetarians. This affected people’s health, though it improved once a vegetarian diet was provided. Whenever he was ordered to report to a military base he refused to do so and waited at home for someone to come and arrest him. Twice he returned the travel warrant sent with his conscription papers because he believed that if they wanted him, they should come and get him..

George set up a branch of the Non Combatant Fellowship in 1915 in Tunbridge Wells. His TB was treated free of charge by Dr. Alfred Salter at Fairby Grange in Kent which was a clinic for TB patients set up and run at the doctor's own personal expense.

After the end of the war and following his discharge from both the army and the hospital, George worked for the Co-op eventually becoming a branch manger of one of their shops. He was an active trade unionist and his activities in the internal structures of the Co-op led to his demotion which caused core difficulties for both his colleagues and the Co-op.

In 1939 at beginning of WW2 he was aged 45 and when conscripted, he remained true to his conscientious objector's principles and became a CO for the second time. He refused to serve in the Civil Defence and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in Maidstone, frequently on a bread and water diet for 3 days, the maximum time for such a punishment, then 2 days on a normal diet before being returned to the bread and water diet.

Later George expressed some regrets saying “I should have had more regard for the feelings for the employer (of his father), who had always treated Dad very well. But I was young and enthusiastic for my cause, as my family was against it. Life’s experience has taught me that I must be careful and tolerant and must give consideration to opposing views, careful not to place others in a false position. My parents suffered for my thoughtlessness….”
However, George thought his mother was more sympathetic to his views than his father, but by the end of WW1 both had joined the Labour Party and later enrolled in the National Council Against Conscription.
He reflected that had he ever been offered work in food distribution, based on his experience as a grocer, he would probably have accepted, as he knew that food had to be distributed, and had heard that some COs had been given exemption on those grounds.

He was of the view that COs in WW1 had proved quite literally that any decent modern government could not coerce a man’s conscience because of the way COs were treated in WW2. After the War he became an Essex County Councilor, a Governor of The London Hospital and a Justice of the Peace.

George married at the end of WW2 and died aged 82 in 1976.

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