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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT |
JOHN BURKE  

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John Burke is thought to have come over from Ireland in search of work, and lived with his wife in lodgings in Morecambe, Lancashire.  Residence in Britain brought him into the net of conscription, and he faced call-up in early 1917. Having been refused exemption as a conscientious objector, he ignored a notice to report to barracks in Oswestry, Shropshire. This led to arrest by a civilian police constable on 12 May 1917, being brought before the local Magistrates’ Court on 13 May, and handed over to a military escort, who took him to the barracks to which he had been directed to report.

At the barracks John, like other COs in his position, began to disobey orders such as to put on a uniform, but took the matter further by also refusing food, going on hunger-strike. In this he seems to have followed the example of Emmanuel  Ribeiro, the only other CO known to have begun hunger-striking while in the custody of the Army (other COs had begun hunger-striking in civilian prisons, after being sent there by courts-martial). The Army, having no experiences or facilities in the barracks for dealing with a hunger-striker followed their own precedent with Ribeiro, and sent him to Lord Derby’s War Hospital, Winwick, near Warrington, Cheshire, a military hospital set up primarily for war-wounded soldiers. There he remained, being regularly force-fed, along with Ribeiro.

However, unlike the case of Ribeiro, who eventually underwent a court-martial specially convened around his hospital bed, John Burke never had a court-martial. In January 1918 he was returned to barracks, possibly to facilitate a court-martial, but as John steadfastly maintained his hunger-strike, he was , after a couple of weeks, sent back to the hospital, and a second return to barracks in April led to a second return to hospital after a week.  He seemed to accept his position philosophically, writing in a letter to a friend (14 February 1918), “As to treatment, I do not complain, as I think it is hardly consistent with my policy, and too petty. It would only amount to complaining about the food, which, after all, I refuse… since I came here I have suffered incessantly from headache, have lost 6 lb. I did not complain to the authorities, as it is useless, from previous experience. The only thing one could complain of is the lack of exercise… I have become very week indeed…” He had developed a fistula, but not reported it, then a ward orderly reported it and a surgeon wanted to operate, “but I could not accept it at the hands of the military… I am convinced that I am now breaking up gradually, but I must stick it. There are worse cases elsewhere, as the evidence of last month proved”.  It is possible that John Burke had in mind the case of Arthur Horton.

Eventually, the Army transferred him, around May/June 1918, to a military hospital in Ireland, No 1 Special King George’s Hospital, Dublin, and from there, on 7 July 1918, to Richmond Asylum, Dublin, indicating an apparent finding of serious unsoundness of mind. How justified such a finding was, and whether  it was based on his refusal of a recommended operation  (because it meant co-operation with the military), is not known, nor what happened after admission to Richmond Asylum.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born:
Died:
Address: c/o 38, Euston Road, Morecambe.
Tribunal:
Prison:
HO Scheme: [1]
CO Work:
Occupation:


 






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