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JOSEPH GOSS 1890 - ????  

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Joseph Goss was born in 1884. In 1916 he was living in Stroud Green, he was single and worked as a tailor with his brother in a family owned business in Newgate Street in the City of London. His older brother Isaac was also a Conscientious Objector. In 1916 Joseph was a member of the Independent Labour Party, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the No Conscription Fellowship. He was an attender at Quaker meetings and was received into the Friends in March 1919.

He applied to his local tribunal as a CO on 28 March 1916 on religious grounds and was granted “exemption from combative service only”. The Tribunal noted that ‘this was the utmost limit to which they felt able to go’. COs who received exemption from combatant services only often felt cheated by their local tribunals - the Military Service Act made clear provision for a CO to be given “Absolute exemption” which would have allowed them to carry on their lives according to their conscience.

At his appeal to the Local Tribunal (Hornsey) he was offered exemption from non-combative service if willing to undertake work of national importance as directed by the Pelham Committee. He declined the offer of the Tribunal and his appeal was dismissed. In May 1916 Goss appealed for a variation to his certificate of exemption and requested that his case was heard by the Central Tribunal. In his letter in support of his appeal Goss quotes Lord Sandhurst speaking on 6 May in the House of Lords said that M. Long had in the House of Commons on the 1st May “made it clear that in spite of definite statements to the contrary by certain tribunals ….the power of absolute exemption was already in the principal act and that he was willing to hear cases where the tribunal held the mistaken view that they had not the power to give total exemption.” However the Chairman at his appeal tribunal declared in the House of Commons that he did not believe the Act allowed for absolute exemption on conscience grounds and therefore the best he could offer was to undertake work identified by the Pelham Committee to be of national importance.

In a second letter to the Appeal Tribunal written in July 1916 in support of his appeal for variation to his certificate and requesting that his appeal is heard at the Central tribunal Goss writes ‘Mr Nield had previously most definitely stated that in his opinion he could not give absolute exemption on grounds of conscience. The law now is quite clear that absolute exemption could be given…….I should not be penalised through misconception of the law.’ The local tribunal declined to grant (request) seeing no reason to acceding to it. In August Joseph again requested unsuccessfully for his case to go to be heard by the Central Tribunal and on 18 August 1916 local press reported that ‘he was convicted of having done no wrong and simply acted as his conscience directed’ He was fined 40s and handed over to the military. He went absent but was arrested on 3 October and sent to Mill Hill barracks where he would soon face a court martial after disobeying military orders.

In preparing for his court martial Joseph wrote to the Secretary of the Middlesex Tribunal on 3 October asking to be sent the information that he had presented to the Tribunal with the record of the outcomes showing that he had been offered exemption from both combative and non-combative service.

The reply was brief ‘I beg to inform you that there is no record to enable me to confirm the statements you refer to, neither do I have any recollection of them.’ Joseph replied by return of post again specifying precisely the documents to which he was referring. A letter was also sent by Mary Fox, writing as his court martial friend requesting the same information. On 10 October a letter was received enclosing certified copies of the papers requested. Two days later, with documents in hand, Joseph faced court martial at Mill Hill Barracks and sentenced to 6 months hard labour at Wormwood Scrubs prison. COs that found themselves in prison after court martial soon found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of sentencing and prison. After serving a first sentence, a CO would be released, only to become eligible for call up once more - handed over to the army, and eventually back to prison.

Joseph was no exception to this pointless repetition. He was court martialled a second time in January 1917 at Mill Hill Barracks, this time being sentenced to 2 years hard labour in Wandsworth prison commuted to 6 months . He was released at the end of May. On 26 June 1917 he was court martialled for a third time and sentenced to 2 years hard labour in Wandsworth prison. In April 1919 he was released by order of the Secretary of State under the two year rule, having served three years in prison. This experience of three sentences and final release only in 1919 was common to many absolutists like Joseph who preferred to stay in prison with no idea when they would finally be released rather than compromise their principles that it was morally wrong to fight and kill in war.

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About the men who said NO

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CO DATA

Born: 1890
Died:
Address: 31 Connaught Road, Stroud Green, London.
Tribunal:
Prison:
HO Scheme: [1]
CO Work:
Occupation: Tailor's cutter
NCF: Tottenham

ILP
Absolutist

 


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