Description
Object description
British civilian conscientious objector worked as miner at Bradford Colliery, Manchester, GB, 1942-1943
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Stockport and Manchester, GB, 1923-1939: family; father's library and self-education; development of anti-war and anti-establishment views; political influences; employment in father's bookshop; development of pacifist views; attendance at anti-war movement meetings; attitude of friends to pacifist beliefs on outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939; contacts with other conscientious objectors, Aspects of period as civilian in Manchester, GB, 1939-1941: duties with Civil Defence; effect of German bombing and casualties on pacifist beliefs; attitude to patriotism and jingoism; working class customers visiting father's bookshop; influence of Donald Soper, Max Plowman, John Middleton Murray, Fenner Brockway and Mohandas K Gandhi; story of Peace Pledge and Dick Sheppard.
REEL 2 Continues: registration as conscientious objector and tribunal, 1941 including type of questions and answers; result of tribunal; opinion of members of panel; attitude of pacifists to authority; effect of First World War on pacifist beliefs; story of Oxford University undergraduate at tribunal; attending further tribunal and result; reason for choice of employment in coal mine; reaction of father and girlfriend to decision; attitude to wartime propaganda. Aspects of period as miner at Bradford Colliery, Manchester, GB, 1942-1943: reaction to first experience of manual labour; question of being only conscientious objector in mine and relations with other miners; training and lectures; story of young miner and poetry.
REEL 3 Continues: attitude to working in coal mine; working conditions; attitude of other miners to conscientious objectors; development of political conscience whilst working in mine; attitude to sense of community and interdependence in mining industry; accidents and safety precautions in mines; question of work not stopping during German Air Force raids; physical effects of work as miner; description of working in mine; solidarity amongst miners; attitude of miners to wartime propaganda; relations with other miners; working conditions in mine including shift system and daily routine.
REEL 4 Continues: description of work as miner; shift system; accommodation; pithead baths; attitude of father to his work as miner; opinion of Bevin Boys; accident in mine and nature of injuries; story of being turned down for employment in market garden due to agnosticism; return to work in father's bookshop, 1943; friendship with conscientious objector George Holland; comparison of treatment of conscientious objectors in First and Second World Wars; opinion of Quakers; question of relative ease of exemption from military service for Quakers and Communists; common beliefs among different categories of pacifists; reaction to dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, 8/1945.
REEL 5 Continues: Aspects of post-war life and employment: attitude to development of nuclear weapons; links between Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and pacifists; attitude to violence; opinion of effectiveness of United Nations; attitude to joining organisations and campaigning for peace; strength of belief among conscientious objectors; reflections on wartime period as conscientious objector.