the men who said no
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JOHN RICKMAN 1882 - xxxx  

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John Rickman was a Quaker CO living in Dorking at the outbreak of the war in 1914, where he was studying to become a doctor. As a religious man he believed that violence and war could not be justified, and his decision to train to save life perhaps influenced his refusal to take it through military service.

His qualification as a doctor allowed him to successfully argue his case at the Dorking Tribunal in March 1916, which granted him six months temporary exemption on the condition that he joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit or Friends’ War Victims Relief Service.

The Friends’ War Victims Relief Service worked to alleviate the suffering of the many thousands of civilians around Europe who had been displaced, injured or made homeless by the war. Members would often work in phenomenally difficult conditions, with little to no help from any central authority, on some of the forgotten victims of the war. John joined the FWVRS in September 1916 to help with this important work.

Soon after, John was one of a small group of Quakers providing famine relief, medical and social care near Samara in Russia with the FWVRS. Working in primitive conditions with little medical equipment, food, or other resources John and several other members of the FWVRS set up three charitable centres that, at their height, provided emergency relief and longer term support to thousands of Russians.

By late 1917, caught up in the increasing chaos first of the Revolution and then the Civil War, John and his colleagues had to flee their centres, moving through Siberia to Vladivostok, continuing to give aid where they could as they travelled. John was the first to report the situation in the West to the British Consul in Vladivostok.

After the First World War, John would continue his work in medicine. His commitment to aiding others led him to join the RAMC in the Second World War to provide psychiatric treatment and support to soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. John’s determination to help victims of war clearly shows the strength of his principles and conscientious belief.

 

 

 

 

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About the men who said NO

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CO DATA

Born: 1892
Died:
Address: 22 Rose Hill, Dorking
Tribunal: Dorking
Prison:
HO Scheme:
CO Work: Friends War Victims Relief Service, Russia
Occupation: Doctor

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