the men who said no
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HAROLD ERNES WILD 1895 - 1979  

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Harold Wild was a committed pacifist who worked with the FoR, NCF and ILP throughout the war. In 1916 with the advent of Conscription, he was attending meetings of the No-Conscription Fellowship and other anti-Conscription groups while working as an insurance clerk in Manchester.

In January 1916 his diary records that he had to “be true to my conscience. I am determined to be imprisoned or shot before I will take up Munition Work or Mine Sweeping or any work distinctly Military under the Military Authorities.”

While Harold was keenly religious to the point of considering a position as a Methodist minister, his attitudes set him apart from the established churches of the time. His daughter recalls that:

“It was the churches' attitude, in particular the call to 'fight in the name of Christ' which he found intolerable. At about this time he read through the whole of the bible, and came to the conclusion that it was not God's will to fight, and that Jesus, in particular, taught us to love our enemies, not to fight them.”

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Extract from letter to daughter |more

He was nevertheless called up to face the Manchester Tribunal on the 19th of April 1916 and his application for absolute exemption was dismissed. He received little better from the County Appeal tribunal a month later, being given a verdict of exemption from Combatant service only after a short hearing before a dismissive panel.

Completely rejecting both this decision and the authority of the Tribunal to order him to disobey his conscience, Harold refused to attend further hearings and ignored their order to report to a local barracks for training. This caused problems for his employer, as his diary recalls:

“Mr Crook called me to his office. I said I was now an absentee. Option of resigning or being dismissed. I resigned and left at noon.”

After several weeks, Harold was arrested during a police raid on the NCF offices in Manchester. He was fined and finally handed over to the army. After being passed by two Army doctors, it was revealed that he was unfit for service due to hip displacement, but had been determined to make his stand for peace before the Tribunal as a Conscientious Objector, rather than secure exemption on medical grounds. Harold was one of a very few COs who would have been automatically exempted had they chosen this path of least resistance. It is a testament to the strength of his opposition to war that he chose the harder way - Tribunal, Arrest and Trial.

In 1974 he would write to his daughter, stating simply:

“Looking back over the years, I do not feel that I could have taken any other stand than I did

 

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Brother-in-law of Arnold Whipp also CO

 

 

 

 

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About the men who said NO

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CO DATA

Born: 1895
Died: 1979
Address: 20, Slade Grov, Manchestere
Tribunal:
Prison:
HO Scheme:
CO Work:
Occupation: Insurance clerk
NCF:YES

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

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