A Community of Consent: Conscientious Objectors on the North Yorkshire Moors and the North East Coast During the First World War

Abstract

From 1916 onwards, the Military Service Appeal Tribunals gave men in Britain a mechanism to appeal their conscription into the army. Though tribunals across the country heard appeals from tens of thousands of men, the work of the tribunals is now largely forgotten; an officially sanctioned process which began with the destruction of all the tribunal documents in 1921. Using the recently discovered papers for the North Riding County Appeal Tribunal, I have identified a concentration of Conscientious Objectors on the North Yorkshire Moors and specifically along the ironstone mining area of the coast. The high rate of conscientious objection in these areas is suggestive of an anti-war community, but I argue these men appealing at the North Riding Tribunal cannot always be seen as being anti-war. These communities supported the war effort but put limits upon that support. This paper builds upon Cyril Pearce’s ideas around communities accepting of resistance to the First World War, which could be found across Britain, but challenges what these communities and Conscientious Objectors were resisting. If similar patterns can be identified in other parts of the country, this would nuance the narrative of conscientious objection away from men not wanting to fight to men not wanting to be in the army and accepting other forms of war work.

Keywords:

• First World War
• Military Service Tribunals
• conscription
• conscientious objection
• Middlesbrough
• north riding

Notes

1 David Silbey, The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914–1916 (New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 36–7.

2 Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 101.

3 Ibid., p. 103.

4 Ivor Slocombe, ‘Recruitment into the Armed Forces during the First World War: The work of the Military Appeals Tribunals in Wiltshire, 1915–1918’ The Local Historian, 30:2 (May 2000), p. 109.

5 Ministry of Health Circular R.293 James McDermott, British Military Service Tribunals, 1916–18, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), p. 1.

6 Ibid.; Gregory, The Last Great War.

7 McDermott, British Military Service Tribunals, 1916–18, p. 4.

8 Malcolm Chase, ‘Unemployment without Protest: The Ironstone Mining Communities of East Cleveland in the Inter-war Period’, in Unemployment and Protest, New Perspectives on Two Centuries of Contention, ed. by Matthia and Matt Perry Reis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 265.

9 Peter Tuffs, The Cleveland Ironstone Miners: Early Attempts at Combination and the Formation of the “Cleveland Miners’ Association” (Guisborough: Peter Tuffs, 2001), p. 9.

10 Robert Page Arnot, The Miners: Years of Struggle (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953), p. 91.

11 John S Owen, Cleveland Ironstone Mining (Guisborough: Peter Tuffs, 1986), p. 30.

12 Cyril Pearce, Comrades in Conscience: The Story of an English Community’s Opposition to the Great War, Revised edn (London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2014); Cyril Pearce, Communities of Resistance: Conscience and Dissent in Britain during the First World War (London: Francis Boutle, 2020).

13 Cyril Pearce, The Pearce Register <https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk> [accessed 14 June 2022]

14 Keith Grieves, The Politics of Manpower, 1914–18 (War, Armed Forces & Society) (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990), p. 22.

15 Northallerton, North Yorkshire County Records Office (NYCRO), Group and Class Systems: Notes on Administration, p. 84, North Riding Appeal Tribunal Papers (1916–19), NRCC/CL 9

16 David J. Boulton, Objection Overruled: Conscription and Conscience in the First World War (Dent: Dales Historical Monographs, 2015), p. 128.

17 The following are the major historical works but there are numerous secondary texts and works of popular fiction that revolve around the CO: John William Graham, Conscription and Conscience: A History, 1916–1919 (London: Forgotten Books, 1922); Boulton, Objection Overruled: Conscription and Conscience in the First World War; John Rae, Conscience and Politics: The British Government and the Conscientious Objector to Military Service, 1916–19 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970); Thomas C. Kennedy, The Hound of Conscience (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1981); Pearce, Comrades in Conscience: The Story of an English Community’s Opposition to the Great War

18 Graham, Conscription and Conscience: A History, 1916–1919, p. 29.

19 Boulton, Objection Overruled: Conscription and Conscience in the First World War, p. ix.

20 Lois S. Bibbings, Telling Tales about Men: Conceptions of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service During the First World War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), p. 37.

21 Pearce, Comrades in Conscience: The Story of an English Community’s Opposition to the Great War; Pearce, Communities of Resistance: Conscience and Dissent in Britain during the First World War.

22 Ibid., pp. 358–9.

23 Ibid., p. 401.

24 Ibid.

25 Pearce, Comrades in Conscience: The Story of an English Community’s Opposition to the Great War

26 Pearce, Communities of Resistance: Conscience and Dissent in Britain during the First World War, p. 481.

27 For example, for the Flaxton Rural District, using Pearce's methodology, the area scores 9.32. If we look at only the COs who came before the NRAT, but like Pearce, use only males aged 13–35 in the 1911 census, the area scores 6.21. Using Pearce's methodology, Flaxton would be the highest scoring area, with Scalby as second, but the NRAT papers have one more CO case appearing before the tribunal from Scalby than Pearce has coming from the area. This anomaly is caused by James Burchell appearing twice before the NRAT.

28 Ibid., p. 406.

29 Robert Moore, Pit-Men, Preachers and Politics: The effects of Methodism in a Durham Mining Community (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), p. 196.

30 Brian Greaves, ‘Methodism in Yorkshire 1740–1851’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, 1968), p. 167.

31 Tony Nicholson, ‘Common Ground: The Dynamics of Mutuality in the Cleveland Ironstone Mining District 1850–1914’ (Teesside Polytechnic, 1988), p. 79.

32 Ibid., p. 231.

33 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘Samuel Townsend (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/33’.

34 Northallerton, NYCRO, R.76 Notes of Conference (1916), North Riding Appeal Tribunal Papers (1916–19), NRCC/CL9.

35 Northallerton, NYCRO, R.77 Notes from the Central Tribunal (1916)/Local Government Circulars/North Riding Appeal Tribunal Papers (1916–19), NRCC/CL9.

36 Bibbings, Telling Tales about Men: Conceptions of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service During the First World War, p. 38.

37 Graham, Conscription and Conscience: A History, 1916–1919, p. 161.

38 Kennedy, The Hound of Conscience, p. 211.

39 Ibid., p. 242.

40 ‘A Scarborough Conscientious Objector and his Appeals’, Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 26 May 1916 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

41 Volunteers Uncover Hidden Messages at Richmond Castle (2018), <https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/blog/blog-posts/hidden-messages-richmond-castle/> [accessed 2 June 2022]

42 Cyril Pearce, email to Angus Wallace, 5 October 2023

43 Laura Ugolini, Civvies: The Middle-Class Men on the English Home Front, 1914–18 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), p. 127.

44 William Robertson, Middlesbrough’s War Effort in the Great War, (Middlesbrough: Jordison & Co., 1922), pp. 205–36.

45 Census of England and Wales 1911: Summary Tables (London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1915), p. 233.

46 British Online Archives (BOA), Letter to the No-Conscription Fellowship members (1916), Working Class Movement Library, ORG/NCF/1/B.

47 Boulton, Objection Overruled: Conscription and Conscience in the First World War; Pearce, Communities of Resistance: Conscience and Dissent in Britain during the First World War, pp. 83–109.

48 Ibid., p. 481.

49 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘William Fox’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/1534.

50 BOA, Final Agenda for the National Convention of the No-Conscription Fellowship (1919), Working Class Movement Library, ORG/NCF/1/B.

51 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘Frank Dean’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/275.

52 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘Alexander Gardner Henderson’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/686.

53 ‘Conscientious Objector Suicide’, Yortkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 3 June 1916 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

54 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘Charles Cryer’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/2/1, NYCRO; ‘Ernest Myers’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/2/2.

55 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘Ernest Myers’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/2/2.

56 Arnot, The Miners: Years of Struggle, p. 91.

57 Ibid., p. 153.

58 ‘Cleveland Miners Important Decision Today’, Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 12 August 1914 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

59 ‘Patriotic Miners’, Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 28 December 1914 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

60 ‘Patriotic Cleveland Miners’, Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, 1 January 1915 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

61 Simon Chapman, The Loftus Mines, Skinningrove: A History of Ironstone Mining at Loftus Mines in Skinningrove Valley, (Guisborough: Peter Tuffs, 1998), p. 89.

62 ‘Cleveland Miners’, The Independant, 3 July 1915 <https://go.gale.co >

63 ‘Cleveland Miners’, The Independant, 17 July 1915 <https://go.gale.com>

64 ‘Trade Union Notes’, The British Citizen and Empire Worker, 19 May 1917 <https://go.gale.com>

65 ‘Cleveland Miners’, Newcastle Journal, 10 October 1916 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

66 Jessica Meyer, Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012). p. 161

67 Nicholson, ‘Common Ground: The Dynamics of Mutuality in the Cleveland Ironstone Mining District 1850–1914’, p. 106.

68 Priscilla Mary Truss, ‘Primitive Methodism in the Yorkshire Wolds c.1820–1932’ (unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Leeds, 2016), p. iii.

69 Nicholson, ‘Common Ground: The Dynamics of Mutuality in the Cleveland Ironstone Mining District 1850–1914’, pp. 251-257.

70 BOA, Independent Labour Party Report of the Annual Conference (1918), p. 101

71 Ibid., p. 95.

72 Arnot, The Miners: Years of Struggle, p. 158.

73 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘James Robert Bosomworth’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/64.

74 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘William Arthur Boddy’ (1917) NRCC/CL9/1/4074.

75 Ibid., p. 154.

76 Commonwealth War Graves, <https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/784811/robert-h-husband/> [accessed 14 June 2022]

77 Pearce, Comrades in Conscience: The Story of an English Community’s Opposition to the Great War, p. 22.

78 Moore, Pit-Men, Preachers and Politics: The effects of Methodism in a Durham Mining Community, pp. 200–1.

79 ‘Norther Notes - A Wise Decision’, Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 20 May 1916 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>

80 James McDermott, British Military Service Tribunals, 1916–18 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), p. 40.

81 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘Herbert Young’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/346.

82 Northallerton, NYCRO, ‘John Harrison’ (1916) NRCC/CL9/1/606.

83 McDermott, British Military Service Tribunals, 1916–18, p. 43.