Description
Object description
British civilian in Scarborough and Belpher, GB, 1914-1916; absolutist conscientious objector in Derby, Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth and Winchester Prisons in GB, 1916-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as civilian in Scarborough and Belpher, GB, 1914-1916: employment in grocery business; unexpected nature of outbreak of First World War, 8/1914; memories of German bombardment of Scarborough, 12/1914; memories of John William Graham; character of Fritchley Quaker community.
REEL 2 Continues: religious basis for his conscientious objection; question of exemption for Quakers; attending tribunals; family and local reaction to his pacifist stance; British support for Belgian refugees; degree of awareness of war situation; attitude towards potential imprisonment.
REEL 3 Continues: arrest as conscientious objector and appearances in police court; reads statement he prepared for police court; degree of contact with other pacifists and Quakers; conditions in barracks guardroom; segregation from other prisoners. Recollections of imprisonment in Derby, Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth and Winchester Prisons in GB, 1916-1919: work and conditions in Derby Prison; ability to look out of window in Winchester Prison; prison rations.
REEL 4 Continues: prison regulations; family visits; first Quaker meeting in Wormwood Scrubs Prison; letters; communication between prisoners in different prisons; types of work engaged in; reading in prison; damp cell in Wormwood Scrubs Prison; question of making complaints; character of prison governor.
REEL 5 Continues: prison book allowance; behaviour of conscientious objectors in prison; description of prison uniform; health; religious meetings; discussion of alternativist and absolutist conscientious objection stances.
REEL 6 Continues: problems of upholding pacifist position; reasons for refusal of Home Office Scheme; post-war ostracism of conscientious objectors; degree of awareness of conscientious objectors being sent to France; ignoring prison silence rule; visits by sister, Lydia Smith; writing letters.
REEL 7 Continues: degree of contact with outside world; effects of eye disease and subsequent release from prison, 1919; prison restriction on personal toiletries; character of religious services in Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs Prisons; visits by prison clergy.
REEL 8 Continues: degree of contact with other prisoners; morale of conscientious objectors in prison; question of treatment of conscientious objectors in prison; daily routine; lack of memories of Armistice Day, 11/11/1918; question of release after armistice; return to family grocery business after release; sister Emily Smith's setting up of commune.
REEL 9 Continues: wife's attitude towards his wartime conscientious objection stance; method of passing time in prison and adjusting to prison life; memories of sister, Lydia Smith and her work with No Conscription Fellowship.
REEL 10 Continues: ostracism by some friends for conscientious objection stance; question of influence of conscientious objectors in First World War on future of pacifism; activities during Second World War; memories of pacifist contemporaries including Clifford Allen.