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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | |
WILLIAM PENN 1893 - | |||||||||
Many Conscientious Objectors sent to prison as Absolutists for disobeying military orders saw their harsh sentences commuted to shorter terms. William Penn is one of the exceptions. A committed member of the Willesden branch of the NCF, William refused to make any compromise with military authority and was conscripted and shortly after sent to prison in mid-1916. His prison record confirms three long sentences at Wormwood Scrubs from early 1917 to April 1919, each time marked with "lost all remission". There were many ways for a CO to lose access to the typical commuted sentence. First World War prisons were places of harsh discipline and easily broken rules. The most common rule that could land a CO in significant trouble for breaking was the "rule of silence" where prisoners could not speak to each other, or even to themselves, during their sentence. Its purpose was to grind down the will to resist. In many cases, and possibly William's, COs outright refused to pay any notice to it and continued to speak freely in prison to show their contempt and disregard for the military and civil system that had imprisoned them. William was released in April 1919 under the "two year rule" where COs who had undergone extensive sentences were released in the build up to the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty which marked the official end of the war.
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