History of Conscientious Objection

Conscientious objectors (COs) are people who refuse, for moral reasons, to serve in any Armed Forces, or, if they have already enlisted, decide for the same reasons that they can no longer serve.

In ancient and mediaeval history, slaves and feudal peasants were sometimes forced to become foot soldiers in private armies or work in the galleys of warships. Later, in Britain, there was “press-ganging”, where men were rounded up in ports to make up numbers needed for the Navy. Conscription to the Armed Forces organised centrally by the state began in 1793 in France, following the Revolution, and gradually spread in the early 19^th century throughout mainland Europe, but not to Britain.

Then here in 1916, during the First World War, there were not enough volunteers to replace the increasing number of troops being killed. The government finally introduced compulsory military service, but with an enlightened approach. Quakers had been exempted from the former militia since 1757, and the 1916 Military Service Act widened this to allow anyone to refuse conscription on grounds of conscience, as had been campaigned for by the No-Conscription Fellowship, founded in1914.

The law may have been liberal, but often the practice was not. COs had to appear before a tribunal to test their sincerity, but tribunal members tended to be ardent patriots and arbitrarily refused 6000 out of 16,000 claims. Would-be COs were then deemed to be enlisted, and faced brutal treatment by the military, or civil imprisonment, for refusing to obey orders. Over 80 men died as a result of the treatment they received as COs, and are commemorated by a plaque in the Peace Pledge Union offices.

Conscription in Britain ended in 1919, but was reintroduced in 1939. The Central Board for Conscientious Objectors co-ordinated work on behalf of the 60,000 COs (including 1000 women) of the Second World War, and even though the administration was much fairer than before, some still went to prison, including the composer Michael Tippett, who unveiled the CO Stone in 1994. Between 1945 and 1960 there were another 10,000 COs under National Service. There is still a right for volunteer soldiers to claim discharge on grounds of a conscientious objection developed since enlistment.

The CO struggle has been much harsher in continental Europe, where conscientious objection did not begin to be generally recognised until the 1960s, after thousands had been imprisoned, and some executed, as in Nazi Germany, and even in Greece as late as 1949. Now at last conscription is beginning to be abolished in Europe, for example, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, France and Italy.

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