We say no!: British Conscientious Objection in the Second World War

1 per cent of all men who were conscripted in Britain during the Second World War conscientiously objected. However, despite the heavy focus on his First World War counterpart, the conscientious objector is largely absent from popular and cultural representations of the Second World War in Britain. Unlike the First World War conscription was pre-planned for the 1939-1945 conflict. The National Service (Armed Services) Act 1939 not only made the provisions for wartime conscription but also allowed men to object to service on the grounds of conscience. Nearly 60,000 men applied for objector status during the six years of the Second World War, in comparison to 16,000 who men applied in the two years of conscription during the First World War.
This research builds on a pilot project funded by an IHR Scouloudi Research Grant that has suggested that there were fundamental differences in the wartime experiences of British COs in the two world wars. During the First World War the relationship between COs and the state was hostile and the British Government used its power to draw COs into the military by force as well as imposing lengthy prison sentences. By contrast, during the Second World War the British state sought to make best use of the manpower of conscientious objectors. Of those who professed a conscientious objection, 12,204 were rejected and 3,577 were granted complete exemption. 45,000 men, the overwhelming majority, were directed to work deemed of "national importance" in both the civilian and military sphere. Similarly, there were very few absolutists. Many, if not most, COs were willing to work for the war effort, especially in a humanitarian context, provided they did not have to wield arms. As CO Tegla Davies wrote in his history of the Quaker-affiliated Friends Ambulance Unit: 'They felt that pacifism having been recognised by the state, should show in action what it could do to relieve the suffering and agony which years of war were bound to produce."
Yet, despite this very different, and more complex, relationship, scholarship on conscientious objection remains fixated on the First World War and ignores both the very different war and indeed the very different Britain in which Second World War objection took place. Fundamentally, there is an untold story to be recovered which is not only central to understanding Britain's Second World War but also a key part of understanding British attitudes to protest. To date, there is no single socio-historical study of conscientious objection in Britain. Rose (2004) notes, in passing, that conscientious objectors held differing conceptions of idealised masculinities than their peers. However, there has been no systematic study of these ideas nor the more general lived experience of the CO. Indeed, existing work, for example by Rachel Barker (1982) and Tobias Kelly (2015) focus on the state and institutional processes of objecting rather the social impacts on men who objected to taking up arms. This research will use underexplored sources, most notably oral testimony and autobiography, in conjunction with significant archival sources to understand the lived experiences of Britain's wartime conscientious objectors and, therefore, put the men who objected at the heart of the research for the first time.