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An Outline of the Life of a Conscientious Objector to War by Mrs Iris Marsden

My late husband was a keen, active evangelical member of a Methodist Church in Hull. He was a Conscientious Objector to War and being in the first call-up age group had to go before a Tribunal to justify his objection to taking part in warfare. He was granted N.C.C Status, which meant he had to wear Army uniform but could never be forced to carry a weapon or take rank. He was posted to the Pioneer Corps and sent to London from his home in Yorkshire. There he was fortunate enough to meet up with four other Christian young men (Methodists) from all parts of the country. They were allocated to the meanest and lowliest tasks (he was injured in the back helping to erect a corrugated hut). These five young men held as often as possible prayer meetings and shared readings from their New Testaments carried in their uniform breast-pockets, in their free-time, ridiculed of course, and they stayed together for quite a long time. They then, as a group of five, volunteered for the Bomb Disposal Squad and served in London during the Blitz, dealing with unexploded bombs. After a further period of dangerous service these same five men again volunteered for the Parachute Brigade and were accepted as Medical Orderlies in the 6th Airborne Division and after rigorous physical training won their wings and were dropped, in front of beach landing troops in France in the early hours of D-day. It so happened that by mistake they were dropped ten miles from their planned zone and became separated. Three of them met up and lived in a ditch for three days on their iron rations, still carrying their medical equipment. They also had their pocket Testaments and their Faith and managed to talk and pray huddled in the ditch within a few feet of German soldiers marching along the road. Capture was inevitable and the three were rounded up and put in crowded railway cattle tricks to be sent across Northern France to P.O.W. camps in Germany. However, once the ground battle to capture the French town of Caen was achieved, the Germans had to retreat hastily, leaving behind their own wounded men, so British P.O.Ws medical men were then put to work in German Field Hospitals nursing the ‘enemy’, my husband being one of them.

On V.E. Day it was some months before the British P.O.Ws could be returned home and I did not know whether my husband (whom I had met and married in ‘my’ North London Methodist Church, which he had attended whilst in the Bomb Disposal Squad) was alive or dead — just posted ‘Missing’ by the Red Cross.

These Conscientious Objectors were not cowards and those who are still alive also need your prayers and respect.

In God’s plan who is to say whether the Fighters or Pacifists were right or wrong. All have their stories and reasons. I cannot judge (my peace-time job had been classified as ‘essential War Work’ so I did not have to make a decision on this issue). I still sit on the fence. Many, many years ago in my teens I heard a young Methodist Minister take as his ‘text’ for his sermon a line from a then pop-song ‘There ain’t no sense sitting on the fence’ (all by yourself in the moonlight), you must come down on one side or the other. You are for or against Christ’s teaching. I am certainly no theologian so I am sure I need advice on the totality of Christ’s teachings on this issue. World War II is now in the past, but as one of the aged who lived through it I would like to endorse the last paragraph coming at it from a different angle.
This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sue Russell of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ on behalf of Mrs Iris Marsden and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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