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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT |
ANDREW BROWN 1899 -  

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Andrew Brown was only 17 when conscription was introduced into British Law by the 1916 Military Service Act, making him one of the youngest Conscientious Objectors in Scotland. His age was such that he was not called up under the act until 1917, when, at the age of 18 he became eligible for conscription. 18 and 19 year old COs typically had a very difficult and often especially unfair time at their Tribunal hearings, either judged “too young to have a conscience” (but not, apparently, too young to kill), or bullied and intimidated by Tribunal panels more confident in a public setting.

Andrew Brown was a member of the “Israelites”, a small dissenting Christian sect, and wore his hair long as a part of his religious faith. He was reportedly ridiculed in his Aberdeen Tribunal appearance in early 1917, and the story of a young man with long hair applying for exemption as a CO was judged unusual and “funny” enough to have featured in associated press Tribunal reports - making Andrew a figure of cruel fun country-wide.

The Aberdeen Tribunal’s verdict is not known, but by the 17th of March 1917, Andrew had been arrested as an absentee from the army, having refused to have anything to do with military service. Whatever the Tribunal’s decision, Andrew had taken up an “Absolutist” stance, and would brook no compromise whatsoever with Conscription. This principled and brave stance would set him against civil and military authorities alike, and within days of his arrest, trial and punishment as an absentee, Andrew was in the hands of the army, where he was swiftly tried by court martial for disobedience. By 1917 the Army had experience of dealing with COs who refused all cooperation with authority, and after a short court martial, Andrew was sentenced to a civilian prison sentence, to be served in Wormwood Scrubs.

Wormwood Scrubs was the venue for meetings of the Central Tribunal, which met to hear Andrew’s case as a conscientious objector on the 18th of May. By the end of June, their decision that Andrew was a genuine Objector with a long-standing opposition to war had won him a transfer to the Home Office Scheme, which he accepted, moving to Dartmoor Work Camp on the 25th.

Dartmoor would be Andrew’s home for the rest of the war, along with around 1,000 other Conscientious Objectors sent there after accepting the Home Office Scheme. There, in exchange for a promise of good behaviour and abiding by certain rules, Andrew would live in better conditions than those offered in prison. Though COs on the Scheme were often put to pointless, backbreaking labour, they were allowed their own time and the freedom to discuss, associate and meet with other men on the scheme. Not quite in prison, but far from free, Andrew’s objection to the slaughter of war and the control imposed by conscription would keep him on the Home Office Scheme until mid 1919 when, with demobilisation, he was released, returning home shortly after.

You may be interested in Objectors & Resisters: Opposition to Conscription and War in Scotland 1914-18

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1899
Died:
Address: 57 Jasmine Terrace, Aberdeen, Scotland
Tribunal: Aberdeen
Prison: Wormwood Scrubs
HO Scheme:Dartmoor [1]
CO Work:
Occupation:

Motivation:
[2]
ABSOLUTIST

 






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