Description
Object description
British conscientious objector served with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB and North West Europe, 1943-1946. Post-war career as journalist with Manchester Guardian
Content description
REEL 1: Background in London and Kent, GB, 1919-1943: family life; education; development of pacifist and political beliefs; interest in foreign affairs including Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939; reason for stance as conscientious objector; summary of pacifist and religious beliefs; reaction of parents to pacifist stance; agricultural work; story of conditional exemption and appeal; attitude of public to conscientious objectors. Aspects of period with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB, 1943-1944: reason for joining Friends' Ambulance Unit; story of article in Daily Mirror about conscientious objectors; reason for wanting to work in China; training; further comments on pacifist beliefs.
REEL 2: description of training and opinion of value; story of Gerald Gardiner at training camp; opinion of training regime at Midland Assembly Depot, Birmingham; use of 'Serbian barrels' for delousing. Aspects of period with Friends' Ambulance Unit in North West Europe, 1944-1946: description of relief work in Belgium and Holland following liberation; description of relief work in liberated German town of Kevelaer; relations with German population and question of fraternisation; description of conditions in Cleve; role in caring for displaced persons and German POWs; description of work in repatriation camp for Russian and Ukrainians troops at Sande near Bremen, Germany.
REEL 3 Continues: story of Red Army taking over camp; opinion of Russians and Poles; role of Friends' Ambulance Unit in preparing airfield at camp; story of repatriation of Russian and Ukrainian POWs; attitude to repatriation of Croat civilians to Yugoslavia; story of meeting Russian émigrés in Klagenfurt, 1946; description of role in conducting inquiry into food supplies for British citizens in France, 1945; story of move to Austria to care for German child evacuees, 1945.
REEL 4 Continues: description of work with Friends' Ambulance Unit in children's evacuee camps in Austrian mountains; comments on the wartime Kinderlandverschickung scheme and problem of children returning to homes; opinion of German teachers; description of role in caring for German teenage boys from Berlin schools; relations with German children; story of escorting German children back to homes in Ruhr and Berlin, 1946; story of maintaining contact with children and teachers; reflections on period of service with Friends' Ambulance Unit and usefulness for post-war life and career.
REEL 5 Continues: Post-war life and employment in GB: effect of pacifist and political beliefs on employment as journalist with Manchester Guardian; attitude to Suez Crisis and Vietnam War; relations with Alastair Hetherington; story of resignation from Guardian in 1967; opinion of Quakers; attitude of Hemel Hemstead Council of Churches to pacifist stance; career as lecturer; comparison of service in armed forces and with Friends' Ambulance Unit; opinion of Friends' Ambulance Unit's London HQ; opinion of Richard Wainwright; comparison of leadership competence of Friends' Ambulance Unit and armed forces; further comments on Gerald Gardiner.