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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT |
NESS EDWARDS 1897 -  

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Onesimus Edwards, known as Ness, was a political conscientious objector who would turn his wartime experiences into a life in politics. Only 19 in 1916 when Conscripted, Ness worked in the local pit, as he had done since the age of 13. Active in local politics from a young age, he was a member of the Independent Labour Party, No-Conscription Fellowship and Pleb’s League, all strongly socialist anti-war organisations.

When Conscription came in 1916, it was inevitable that Ness, with his fervent socialist pacifism, would apply to the Abertillery Tribunal as a Conscientious Objector. His application would not be made in 1916, as, while working as a miner, he was in a nationally important occupation until the British army began “combing out”, gathering all young men no matter their profession, for the Army. Though the result of his application is not known, Ness must have been unhappy with their decision, as he absconded, going on the run to avoid conscription successfully until 1918, when it appears he was arrested, tried as an absentee and sent to the military.

By July 1918 he was in the 3rd Welsh NCC battalion at the Brecon depot, where, after refusing to obey orders, he was tried by court martial and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Sent to Wormwood Scrubs, his case was heard by the Central Tribunal, who passed him for the Home Office Scheme, where he would work until the end of the war.

However, like many other COs, Ness Edwards’ story is confused. Other accounts had him abscond from the army in 1916, eventually being arrested in London. After time on the Home Office Scheme in 1916-1917, he abandoned the Dartmoor Settlement and again went on the run, hiding out in the Brecon Beacons until mid 1918. With so many records relating to Conscientious Objection lost, the full story may never be known.

What is better known is Ness’ post-war political activities. In 1939, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Labour MP, after the death of Morgan Jones, another First World War Objector. During the Second World War he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour, making him responsible for the employment of COs on Work of National Importance. Learning from his own experiences, he would make sure many WW2 COs were directed to useful and productive work, a far cry from the pointless and backbreaking labour he had himself endured on the Home Office Scheme.

 

 

Ness Edwards

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CO DATA

Born: 1897
Died: 1968
Address: Top House, Grosvenor Road, Abertillery, Wales
Tribunal: Abertillery
Prison: Wormwood Scrubs
HO Scheme:Dartmoor [1]
CO Work:
Occupation: Miner
NCF:Abertillery
Motivation: ILP
[2]
ABSOLUTIST

 






 
     
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