Prior to 1916, Albert Edward Allen was a carpenter and trade unionist, a member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners and of the Independent Labour Party. He was born in Croydon in 1882. At the onset of war he joined the Dulwich Branch of the No-Conscription Fellowship, an organization that would, in 1916, become the main support network for Conscientious Objectors.

The Lewisham Borough News of 17 March 1916 reported his appearance before the Military Service Tribunal and his statement that that he had conscientious objections to all war, especially this war because of the scientific slaughter that was going on, and to taking human life either directly or indirectly. He disputed the right of any government to say whether he should take part in warfare and said that he was not a member of any religious body and objected on moral grounds. He was refused recognition as a conscientious objector.

He was an absolutist, believing that any alternative service supported the war effort and gave tacit support to conscription. He was arrested on June 1, 1916 and was taken under guard to be conscripted into the 10 Battalion, London Regiment. He faced Court Martial at Hurdcott (Salisbury) camp after disobeying orders on 12 June 1916 and was sentenced to nine months hard labour, his appeal was heard by the Central Tribunal at Wormwood Scrubs on 4 August 1916 and he was deemed a Conscientious Objector Class-C political.

Albert now found himself trapped in a cycle of disobeying orders, being sentenced to a period of hard labour in civilian prison and on discharge being handed back to the army to again be sentenced for disobeying orders. From 1916 to 1919, he would serve three sentences of hard labour in Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth, Brixton and Portsmouth prisons.

He was one of 120 absolutists who were sent to Wakefield prison in what became known as the Wakefield experiment. The absolutists were offered relatively comfortable conditions as long as they obeyed prison rules. The ‘experiment’ was a failure as they continued to ignore the rules; large numbers of prison officers were needed to control them; the majority ended up in solitary confinement and all were eventually sent back in small groups to other prisons. Albert was sent to Portsmouth.

Conscientious Objectors still in prison in April 1919 were released under what became known as the “Two Year Rule”, whereby all prisoners convicted of army offenses would be released if they had served two years or more. When Albert was released, as with all others in this situation, he was dishonorably discharged from the army and was told that he faced another two years in prison if he tried to sign up again!

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