Description
Object description
British civilian pacifist in GB, 1915-1927; member of Hastings Peace Group and Peace Pledge Union in Hastings and Langham, GB, 1928-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Conisborough, GB, 1902-1914: family; education. Aspects of period as pacifist in GB, 1915-1928: antagonism experienced as pacifist at Ackworth and Bootham Schools during First World War; training and qualifying as architect; background to becoming Quaker, 1915; character of parent's pacifism; eldest brother's experiences as conscientious objector during First World War and later career; second brother's experiences as pacifist in First World War and later career; childhood pacifist actions; basis of his pacifism and belief in sanctity of all life. Recollections of period as member of Hastings Peace Group in Hastings, GB, 1928-1936: formation of group.
REEL 2 Continues: reasons for formation of group; raising funds by playing Norman Angell's Money Game; activities of group; public response towards group's activities; group's philosophy of disarmament; value of International Friendship League camp held in the back garden of his home, 1932. Recollections of period as member of Peace Pledge Union in Hastings and Langham, GB, 1936-1945: joining Peace Pledge Union, 1936; reasons for fall in membership of Peace Pledge Union on outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; memories of Dick Sheppard; arrangement of meeting for Dick Sheppard to speak in Hastings; memories of Vera Brittain and George Catlin.
REEL 3 Continues: character of beach and village meetings; putting on plays; publicity received; reaction to Munich Crisis, 9/1938; preparation of pacifists' information book; public attitude towards pacifists; expectations of coming war; attitude towards taking part in war work; refusal to register for military service and reaction to accepting ration book; managing without ration books; voluntarily retiring from work as architect on outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; wartime occupations; public response to his stance as conscientious objector; people who left Peace Pledge Union.
REEL 4 Continues: refusal to register for military service; question of British Government's negative response to his refusal to register for military service; opinion of British Government's reasons for not pursuing him; sense of isolation; wartime activities of former members of Peace Pledge Union; influential pacifist book; question of power of non-violence and trade unions; question of British Government's persecution of pacifists; effects of not having identification card; working for Max Plowman's Quaker hostel for the elderly at Langham; reasons for the hostel's failure; effect of war on pacifists' careers; post-war concerns for architecture.
REEL 5 Continues: sense of isolation as pacifist; dissatisfaction with Quakers; question of philosophical basis of his pacifism; reasons for avoiding war safety precautions; memories of Dick Sheppard and Peace Pledge Union; question of British Government's tolerant behaviour towards conscientious objectors in the Second World War; concerns for individual and society, 1980.