John McIninnie was deeply involved in the local anti-war and anti-conscription movement in Dunfermline long before he was Conscripted in 1916. From 1915 onwards, he was the Secretary of the Dunfermline branch of the NCF, which would have made him well known in the local Conscientious Objector movement. His objection to war was grounded in his politics, and as a Socialist he refused to have anything to do with what was known to his socialist comrades elsewhere as the “Capitalists’ war”.

At 38 when conscription was introduced, John’s call up was delayed until late 1916 on account of his age, and he was most likely expected to report to barracks in the late summer of 1916. Instead, he applied for exemption as a Conscientious Objector, though it appears he received no acceptable exemption as on November 3rd, he was arrested as an absentee from the Army, tried at Dunfermline Police Court and fined 40 shillings. His arrest as an absentee shows that John had decided to give no quarter to the conscriptionist system, and refusing to even acknowledge the authority of the Tribunal verdict, he had forced the system to come and claim him rather than acquiesce.

His fine, most likely met with a refusal to pay, meant that he would be handed over to the Army under guard. In mid December, John had continued his resistance by refusing to obey orders and was facing a court martial, which duly sentenced him to one year of hard labour. This first of several sentences was served in Barlinnie prison, though a transfer to Wormwood Scrubs, where John would refuse to accept the proposed conditions of the Home Office Scheme, interrupted his time in Barlinnie. This brief change would be the only glimpse of the outside world until May1917 when John was released, but - being eligible for call up, albeit now creeping towards the upper limit of age for conscripts, he was again officially arrested and sent back to the Army. Another court martial followed, with another prison sentence. This grim cycle was experienced by thousands of Conscientious Objectors and the harsh conditions of prison, the release, arrest and court martial guaranteed each prison sentence would begin in the “First Division” - the hardest and harshest prison conditions. John would see three prison sentences, the second and third also served in Barlinnie prison.

By January 1919 the government had begun to cave in to relentless political pressure agitating for the release of Conscientious Objectors like John who had been repeatedly imprisoned for the same crime. COs were sorted for release according to how much time they had served and John, as a “two year man” would most likely have been in one of the first waves of COs to be released in April 1919. Though released, final discharge from the Army would not follow for several months, and though John should have been released in 1918 when, at the age of 41 he was then too old to be a conscript, the Military Service Act had him still - in January, it had been extended to men aged up to 51.