THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX |
| ROBERT SECRET 1877 - |
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| Robert Secret was an active member of his local Quaker community in Wandsworth for long before the First World War began in 1914. By the time Conscription was made into law with the Military Service Act 1916, Robert, married with three children at the age of 39, was nearly too old to be caught up in the system. His combination of domestic circumstances and his occupation as a Builder's foreman combined to delay his Tribunal hearing until the 14th of December. He claimed, as so many COs did, Absolute Exemption based on his religious convictions. The Wimbledon Tribunal instead granted him Exemption from Combatant Service (ECS) Only, conditional on Robert joining the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU). ECS upon doing medical work with the FAU was a common decision handed to many Quaker COs, and one that many, Robert among them, accepted. Robert's work with the FAU began in January 1917, and he worked in France and Britain providing medical care and logistic support until the end of the war in 1918. Upon general discharge, however, Robert did not go back to normal, pre-war life, but instead remained committed to his work alleviating some of the suffering of war, joining the Friends War Victims Relief Service to work with refugees and others whose lives had been devastated by the conflict.
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