Description
Object description
British civilian conscientious objector served as medical orderly and accountant with Friends Ambulance Unit in London, GB, 1914-1917; served as ambulance driver with Friends Ambulance Unit on Western Front, 1914-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Wellington, GB, 1893-1914: family including mother's Quaker beliefs; education; employment; reaction to outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914; story of attempt to enlist as despatch rider and volunteering for Friends Ambulance Unit, 9/9/1914. Aspects of period with Friends Ambulance Unit in London, GB, 1914-1917: training with Friend Ambulance Unit in London; training at The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel including attitude to medical work and work in out-patients ward; route marches; question of uniform; volunteering to care for typhoid patients and attitude to overseas service; question of attending tribunal and attitude of local people in Wellington to pacifist beliefs; Christian and pacifist beliefs; story of contracting influenza and delay in overseas posting; role as accountant at Friends Ambulance Unit in London; opinion of efficiency of heaquarters staff; question of funding and pay for Friends Ambulance Unit personnel; effect of conscription on recruitment to Friends Ambulance Unit.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as ambulance driver with Friends Ambulance Unit on Western Front, 1917-1918: role as ambulance driver at Dunkirk, France and Nieuport, Belgium; conversion of vehicles into ambulances; role of ambulance service at Dunkirk, France; further details of duties as ambulance driver; problem of German shelling of munitions dump in Dunkirk, France; German use of 21 Inch Naval Gun to shell Dunkirk Docks, France and attending to casualties; opinion of efficiency of Friends Ambulance Unit; amusing story of Chinese Labour Corps' camp; military and civilian casualties and role visiting medical depots; story of accident with Primus Stove; attitude of military towards Friends Ambulance Unit; story of being recommended for Military Medal and not receiving award; description of ambulances and their capacity; problem of driving in wet weather; question of medical skills and treating casualties.
REEL 3 Continues: amusing story of Cockney soldier; question of Quaker women serving in France; opinion of British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment; presence of typhoid unit near Dunkirk, France; description of shelters in cellars and docks at Dunkirk, France; marriage; volunteering for front line service with French Army at Poperinghe, Belgium, 9/1918; driving ambulance in Ypres area, Belgium; story of women and children gassed by Germans and problem of medical facilities for treatment in Courtrai, Belgium, 11/1918; question of selecting twenty civilians for treatment and how all eight hundred eventually died from effects of gas; lack of reporting of incident; Armistice Day celebrations, 11/11/1918; incident of British soldier accidentally killed by Verey Pistol during Armistice Day celebrations, 11/11/1918; memories of winter 1918-1919.
REEL 4 Continues: activities in Courtrai area, Belgium, 1918-1919; living conditions in Dunkirk, France; question of pacifist beliefs and effects of war experiences; question of men claiming to be conscientious objectors to evade military service; assessment of role of Friends Ambulance Unit during First World War and reflections on period of service; story of brothers' service with French Army ambulance convoys. Reflections on service with Friends Ambulance Unit: role as treasurer for Friends Ambulance Unit training camp during Second World War; question of class of Friends Ambulance Unit personnel; comparison of conscientious objectors in First and Second World Wars; effect of pacifist beliefs on social standing and reaction against his family; reflections on nature of war and pacifist beliefs of children and grandchildren.