Horace Wing was one of many Conscientious Objectors who took on farm work as an alternative to military service during the First World War. With the demands of the army for more men stripping important and labour-intensive industries, such as farming, of their man power, many Tribunals directed COs towards doing "Work of National Importance" or WNI. WNI was overseen by the Pelham committee, which organised the labour of Conscientious Objectors willing to take on economically useful work. They set rules and guidelines on what COs could and could not do, what work was considered "important" and on how much they could be paid. These considerations defined how COs worked. In Horace's case, this meant low level farm work far distant from his home and at a subsistence wage. He was sent to a farm in Kent, where he worked from August 1916 to the end of the war.