The Courage of Cowards by Karyn Burnham

Author:Karyn Burnham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473834996
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

THE NON-COMBATANT CORPS & WORK SCHEMES

Punished and Persecuted

(Ernest E. Hunter, The Home Office Compounds: A Statement as to How Conscientious Objectors are Penalised, 1917)

Local tribunals granted very few men absolute exemption from military service on conscientious grounds and most were initially denied any form of exemption. After failing at their first tribunal, many went on to appeal and, if they could prove the sincerity of their objection, were usually granted a partial exemption. This exempted them from combatant service only and they were still expected to serve their country by joining either the Royal Army Medical Corps or the newly-formed Non-Combatant Corps, though the Friends Ambulance Unit was also seen as acceptable alternative service for Quakers.

At this point, conscientious objectors ceased to be an homogeneous group and were instead split into those who were not willing to support the war in any capacity – the absolutists – and those who were willing to support the war, as long as they did not have to take a life – the alternativists. If a man took the absolutist stance then he would very quickly find himself under arrest and facing a difficult and uncertain path through the war. If a man took the alternativist stance, his way forward was much clearer; he would join a military support unit of some kind and, if he co-operated, the war would pass by relatively smoothly.

The Non-Combatant Corps (NCC) was formed in March 1916 to coincide with the implementation of the Military Service Act. The government had been impressed with the organisation of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) and were convinced that they could create a ‘military’ unit similar in structure to the FAU, which would provide valuable support for the army and also overcome conscientious objections to military service. The original plan for the NCC was for the unit to take part in transport duties, construction work and to facilitate supply. Not only was this work vital to the functioning of the army, it also freed up thousands of men who were willing to fight. The No Conscription Fellowship (NCF), representing the rights of conscientious objectors, vehemently opposed the NCC and advised their members to have no part in it because, in the words of Fenner Brockway, ‘it assists in the taking of life and the prosecution of war’.

Those men who did accept the NCC as an alternative to combatant service soon realised that they were, to all intents and purposes, soldiers without guns; they were expected to wear khaki and to follow military orders. Often mocked and derided by the regular soldiers they worked alongside, the COs who joined the NCC appeared to both the general public and to the NCF to be taking the easy route: refusing to fight but not sticking entirely to their pacifist principles either.

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