Description
Object description
British civilian conscientious objector with Friends Ambulance Unit in GB, India and China, 1941-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Sheffield, GB, 1921-1941: family; education at Bootham School; development of pacifist beliefs; reason for registering as a conscientious objector on outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939. Aspects of period with Friends Ambulance Unit in GB, 1941-1942: joining Friends Ambulance Unit and working at Friends Ambulance Unit Training Camp, Manor Farm, Northfield, Birmingham; called up for military service; description of tribunal; reason for concealing Quaker family background; granting of conditional exemption and opting for relief work; basis of pacifist beliefs; question of Birmingham Quakers receiving preferential treatment; further details of tribunal; attitude of employer to pacifist stance; lack of awareness of international events and contact with Jewish refugees; opinion of conscientious objectors in First World War; attitude to working with Friends Ambulance Unit; description of work in London, 1941-1942; applying to join China Convoy, 1941; training as mechanic; description of charcoal burning vehicle conversions; role of British Relief Unit in China.
REEL 2 Continues: further details of use of charcoal burning vehicles. Aspects of period as mechanic with Friends Ambulance Unit in India, 2/1942-7/1942: voyage from GB to India; role with unit; work of Friends Ambulance Unit during Bengal Famine. Aspects of period as mechanic and transport manager with Friends Ambulance Unit in China, 1942-1946: description of journey to China, 7/1942; duties as garage mechanic and driver in Kutsing; incident of killing Chinese boy in road accident; problem of driving on Chinese roads; comradeship and morale on China Convoy; story of travelling to Tibet; appointment as depot manager at Lushan; relations between Red Cross and Friends Ambulance Unit; reaction to news of dropping atomic bombs and end of Second World War, 8/1945; opinion of Chinese National Revolutionary Army; refusal to transport military personnel; move to Chungking to work in transport logistics; first contacts between Friends Ambulance Unit and members of Chinese Communist Party of China in Yunnan Province.
REEL 3 Continues: story of meeting Communist leaders in Chungking; opinion of Chou En-lai; comparison between Communist Party of China and Kuomintang; reason for Friends Ambulance Unit moving North, 2/1946; description of work in Chengchow; effects of civil war on work of Friends Ambulance Unit; journey to New Zealand via Hong Kong and Australia, 1946; reflections on work with Friends Ambulance Unit in China; story of publishing booklet about Friends Ambulance Unit members; effect on health of work in China including contracting smallpox; attitude of Chinese to pacifist beliefs; relations with members of Communist Party of China and western missionaries; assessment of contribution made by Friends Ambulance Unit in south west China; role of women in Friends Ambulance Unit.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of period in New Zealand, 1946-1988: description of role with Oxfam and shared ideals with Friends Ambulance Unit; origins of Oxfam; connections with current peace movements.