Walter Tregenza was one of four brothers who all became conscientious objectors during the First World War and, like many large families of COs shared many of the same experiences and punishments as a result of their stand.

The Tregenza brothers had been raised in the Wesleyan Methodist faith, and each had attended the Truro Wesleyan College. It was perhaps this faith that inspired the four brothers to refuse conscription in favour of making a stand against war and militarism. Walter, 23 and single in 1916 would have been among the first men to be conscripted, and most likely went before the Penzance Tribunal in May 1916. Though the decision of the Tribunal is not known, it must have either given Walter a form of exemption he could not accept, or refused him exemption entirely, as by September 1916 Walter was recorded as an absentee from the army - and arrested as such on the 5th.

After being found guilty of failing to report to barracks by a Magistrates court, Walter was handed over to the Army at the Littlemoor Camp in Weymouth, where he would continue to resist conscription. Though forced into the Army, Walter could resist through disobedience, and in refusing orders send a clear signal that his conscience was stronger than military discipline. For this disobedience, Walter was brought before a court martial, which sentenced him to two years hard labour on the 29th of September. He would serve this sentence in Wormwood Scrubs, under one of the harshest prison regimes experienced by Conscientious Objectors during the war.

Wormwood Scrubs was also the venue for meetings of the Central Tribunal, which heard Walter’s case on the 23rd of October 1916. They judged him a “class A” Conscientious Objector, one who had a long-standing and deeply held Objection to war. Despite this decision, which should have seen him exempted from the punishment he was undergoing, Walter was simply passed suitable for the Home Office Scheme. It is not known whether or not Walter took up the Scheme, but if he did he may have joined his brothers at one of the Work Camps around the country - possibly at Dyce, Wakefield or Dartmoor, where Douglas and Charles Tregenza also worked.