Tuesday 14th March 1916: Now that men are being conscripted
into the armed forces some of those called up are refusing to serve, siting a
conscientious objection to taking human life. Lance Corporal William Arthur Barker
of 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment has sent us his opinion of such a
stance(1).
“May I say a
few words about conscientious objectors. I have just returned from the Front
for seven days’ leave, after fighting out there all the time with the 1st Bedfordshire
Regiment. We have a paper to read in the trenches now and then and we are
disgusted to see columns about men who refuse to fight. Do these people realise
we are fighting to protect the women and children of this country against the
outrage and ill-treatment received by the people of France and Belgium? What do
the conscientious objectors think when they read of the terrible German poison
gas and the liquid fire they use against us? I am speaking for my comrades and
myself, and we say that the conscientious objector who would see our fair
country overrun by Germans without raising a hand to help it should not live
another minute under the protection of the British Flag. Other nations look
upon us as a great and powerful nation, fighting for the rights of the smaller
peoples, and yet we have men afraid to fight. I say with a chorus of approval
from my brother Tommies in the trenches that we are fighting for the right,
that God is with us, and that victory will come to us, although it appears to
come but slowly. I feel angry about these reports of conscientious objectors
and I am glad I am fighting for my country. I would not leave the boys in the
trenches for long if I could”. “
Just one more
word – single men first and married men after. Why tear the married man from
home and children whilst the single man remains behind?”(2)
Source: 20th April 1916
(1) Lance
Corporal Barker, from Toddington, would be killed in action on 25th September 1916
during the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave and is commemorated on
the Thiepval Memorial.
(2) This is,
indeed, how conscription worked, with single men and childless widowers between
18 and 41 the first to be called up, in March, though in May the call was
extended to married men. The upper limit was raised to 50 and even 56 in 1918. The
measure was not popular. By July 1916 about 30% of those called up had failed
to show. Around 2% of those refusing to serve were conscientious objectors, of
whom 7,000 were allowed non-combatant duties, 3,000 were sent to work camps and
6,000 were imprisoned.
