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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
GEORGE FLEMING 1894 -  

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Arriving at a Conscientious Objection to military service was not a linear path. Some COs were raised in pacifist families, others found religion, or politics, that caused them to reject war and militarism. For some, their resistance to war was universal, applying to all conflict, everywhere, and for others the 1914-1918 war was a specific conflict to be resisted.

For a very small minority of Conscientious Objectors, their moral resistance to war had come after previous military service. George Fleming, of Wick, Caithness, was 23 when he was conscripted in 1917, but had already spent five years in the Royal Navy. Military veterans may have become Conscientious Objectors for a variety of reasons, and may have objected to all wars, the war in progress or simply to conscription - compelling men into the Army was distasteful for many.

Whatever his reasons for objecting to war, George’s experiences show the inconsistency and petty-mindedness of the system that dealt with Conscientious Objectors. He was called to appear before his local Tribunal in 1917, as his occupation as an Able Seaman had protected him from the first rounds of call-up. Such nationally important and dangerous work would not ultimately save him from Conscription, and by the end of 1917, he was in prison for refusing to obey military orders.

In December 1917, after a court martial at Maidstone Barracks, George was in Wormwood Scrubs where the Central Tribunal heard his case to decide on his eligibility for the Home Office Scheme. The Central Committee decided that George was both a genuine CO with long-held moral opposition to war, but also that he was willing to work in the Merchant Navy. His name was forwarded to the War Office for transfer from the Army to a merchant vessel. Under a system as fair and even-handed as Conscription was promised to be, this would have been the end of George’s story. Sent to the Merchant Navy, he would have carried out dangerous non-combatant work bringing much needed supplies to and from Britain. His conscientious principles intact, a balance could have been struck between economic necessity and opposition to war.

Instead, the arbitrary and unfair nature of the system saw fit to punish George for his moral stance. Instead of release into nationally useful work, he was transferred in January 1918 to the Home Office Scheme at Wakefield, where he would stay for the rest of the war. The Home Office Camps were little better than prison, and the work George would have had to undertake was largely backbreaking, punishing and often pointless. The stubbornness of a system designed to punish men for their beliefs deprived the country of useful workers, and made having a moral objection to war a crime instead.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1894
Died:
Address: 141 Kennard Street, Wick, Caithness, Scotland
Tribunal: Caithness
Prison: Wormwood Scrub
HO Scheme: Wakefield [1]
CO Work:
Occupation: Able Seaman

Motivation:
[2]
ABSOLUTIST

 


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WIDER CONTEXT | more
ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION
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CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
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TRIBUNALS | more
SENTENCED TO DEATH | more
PRISONS | more
HOME OFFICE CENTRES | more

READ | more

ONLINE RESOURCES
Conscientious objection in WW1
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