Wilkinson, Arthur Denby (Oral history)

British civilian conscientious objector imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs, Rimac Camp and Lincoln Gaol, 1918-1919

REEL 1 Background in Earby, GB, 1900-1918: family; education and apprenticeship; religious beliefs and Quaker influences; story of receiving call-up papers and reason for decision not to enlist, 6/1918; description of pacifist and political beliefs; story of arrest and court appearance in Skipton; reaction of parents and question of exemption; attitude of local population to arrest; interest in nature; further description of court and tribunal appearances and six months prison sentence; question of refusing to wear uniform. Aspects of period in Wormwood Scrubs prison, London, 6-12/1918: admissions procedure and period of solitary confinement; duties cleaning prison chapel. REEL 2 Continues: description of life and conditions in Wormwood Scrubs; attitude of prison warders; description of cell including sleeping arrangements and heating; washing and sanitary facilities; reason for becoming a vegetarian and attitude to animals; opinion of prison food; question of communication with other prisoners; exercise; reading; communications with home and visits; question of morale and importance of Quaker beliefs; reaction to end of war and continuing imprisonment of conscientious objectors, 11/1918; story of release from Wormwood Scrubs and re-arrest, 31/Dec/1918. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period in Rimac Camp and Lincoln Gaol, Lincolnshire, 1-6/1919: question of continuing to be conscientious objector following end of war; description of conditions in guardroom; relations with guards and other prisoners; opinion of food; further description of conditions in guardroom including sleeping arrangements and problem of cold; story of visit by father and abusive guard; story of court martial for disobedience and sentence of one year in Lincoln Gaol; description of conditions in Lincoln Gaol; cells and sleeping arrangements; exercise; washing and sanitary facilities; story of contacts with Fenner Brockway, Eamon de Valera, and Russian Bolshevik prisoner; story of refusal to undertake alternative work due to state of health; use of toilet paper to pass messages. REEL 4 Continues: further comments on Fenner Brockway; memory of Quaker meetings and attitude to silence; question of communications with outside; story of escape by de Valera and effect on prison life, 1919; story of prison warder and flowers; question of treatment of conscientious objectors during war; story of release under prisoner amnesty, 6/1919. Aspects of post-war life and employment: effects of period of imprisonment and adaptation to normal life; description of theory of opposites. Aspects of activities with conscientious objectors during Second World War, 1939-1945. Attitude to bombing of civilians. Question of optimism about world peace.