大象传媒

Preamble: My great great grandfather was the eldest son of a Yorkshire farmer. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars he was arrested by the 'Press Gang' as an eligable recruit for the then hard - pressed Royal Navy.

William Green had already been converted to Methodism by one of John Wesley's itinerant preachers and seems to have been imbued with a'dissenting tendency. In the event william made his escape from his captors before the party reached its destination at Goole. He stole a rowing boat on the southern shore of the Humber and disappeared into Holderness on the north side of the estuary.

William reappears in the family records some years later near the town of Patrington, farming with his wife and family and following his calling as a lay-preacher.

My story: In autumn 1939 I put my name on the Provisional Register for Conscientious Objectors,(COs). I was never in any doubt over this action, the mind-set had been established long before then in my childhood.

My maternal grandmother had died in tragic circumstances in 1906. My mother, then aged
19 brought up her younger brother and two sisters. During this time she was befriended by a Quaker couple living in Cambridge. My mother frequently spent weekends with them and occasionally attended Quaker meetings in Jesus Lane. Although I never met them the couple
were greatly revered by my mother.

As a teenager I became intrigued by India鈥檚 struggle for independence and still have copies of the photos of Gandhi鈥檚 dramatic arrival in London in 1931 dressed in sandals and white dhoti. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, I was aged 16 and had just matriculated. I knew by then I was a convinced socialist and would never have anything to do with war or its preparation. Brought up as a Methodist I was a member of the Methodist Peace Fellowship and through that first met with Quakers. In 1938 I made a final break with the Methodists on doctrinal grounds and in 1939 began to attend meetings at Winchmore Hill Meeting House.

In late 1930s I read 鈥淎ll Quiet on the Western Front鈥�, a fictional account of his experiences on the Western Front by the German writer Erich Maria Remarque. Translated into many languages but denounced for its pacifism by the Nazis. Remarque emigrated to the U.S. in 1938.

In Spring of 1940 my Tribunal was held, there were 3 members chaired by the historian H.A.L. Fisher with a Union representative and one other person. My case was based on Christian grounds which I could not do now. I had a letter of support written by a personal friend. At the decision of the Tribunal I was to be placed on the Register of Conscientious Objectors on condition that I worked in Forestry, Agriculture or with the ARP, (Air Raid Precautions).

It was in 1940 that I was released from my employment for the duration of the war and
after my Tribunal ruling joined the Society of Friends. After leaving my employment I joined a team of the Christian Pacifist Forestry and Land Units Committee set up by a group of Methodist Ministers establishing small units of six or so COs all over the country. These units were usually employed by County War Agriculture Committees both in forestry and farming. Every County employed all kinds of supplementary workers, women鈥檚 land army etc. to produce as much food as they could. I worked in forestry in the Wye valley near Tintern Abbey. We were paid trade union rates and were billeted locally in farmhouse accommodation.

The COs movement was based as much on their objection to direction of labour as for the
refusal to serve in the armed forces. However, I was able to express my choice of service and this was never questioned by the Ministry of Labour. There were over 70,000 COs provisionally registered and the policy of the Ministry seems to have been to cause as little friction as possible and make as much use as possible of the labour available.

Towards the end of summer 1940 I was on a short leave in London and went to Friends
house to offer assistance as the heavy bombing of London had recently begun. A young man had just arrived asking for helpers 鈥� I went! I was received by the General Secretary of Friends Home Service Committee and found myself at one of the centres of the Highways Clubs which were a chain of clubs for young people based mainly in Shadwell. There were a party of 8-10 young pacifists housed in the basement of one of the club鈥檚 centres. We were
fed and sustained by the staff of Highways Clubs who were very sympathetic to what we
were trying to do. We just started work going out in twos and threes doing what we
could after the bombing, emergency feeding, shelter, just anything that was needed. The
heavy bombing continued until Christmas and by New Year 1941 there was little point of
continuing this kind of emergency work and we started to disperse.

I had heard about the Quaker Relief Training Centre at Spiceland in Devon through John Hoare who had been General Secretary of the Highways Clubs. With three other members of Winchmore Hill Meeting I set off in March 1941 cycling to Devonshire, staying at Youth Hostels en route. Spiceland was a training centre for 30-40 men and women. The course was
for 3 months for which I paid 拢12, the last of my savings. It was an intensive course
including spells of farm work, cooking, building repairs, laundry and first aid. Then people were moved on to various projects, some run by Friends.

At that point I decided to apply to join the Friends Ambulance Service and was transferred directly over to a training camp in Northfield, Birmingham. Three months training there was followed by three months hospital nursing experience in Alton, Hampshire.

Towards the end of 1941 Friends Ambulance Unit and Friends War Relief Service were
running in parallel, sharing personnel and transport arrangements but with slightly different terms of reference. Each eventually engaged about 1,000 young people, about 20-25% were Friends but all were COs. We received 5 shillings per week pocket money, 拢10 per year clothing allowance and one shilling and sixpence toilet allowance until the end of our service. People transferred freely between the organisations and when I became interested in family casework I decided to transfer to Friends Relief Service, working in the Social Services Department. There I was placed in one of the Charity Organisations Society (COS) offices. The COS were pioneers in social work, mostly very identifiable ladies who wore a particular style of dress! At this time Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABs) were being established, mainly under the auspices of COS. We used to do charitable work for half of the day and were based with the CAB the rest of the day. Having received a grounding in CAB work I continued this type of work for the rest of the war, mixed with a certain amount of activity with young people in the evenings.

In 1943 I started learning German with a German Quaker teacher attending her classes for two or three years. I achieved an adequate working knowledge of the language before war ended. Throughout this time I wanted an opportunity to work in Germany which was why acquiring the language was so important to me. I transferred back to Friends Ambulance Unit and joined a new section in Gelsenkirchen. In all there were about 6-8 Quaker teams in the devastated towns of the Ruhr. When I got to my destination my first job was to make a survey of every kindergarten in the town, State run, Catholic, Protestant, and those linked to political parties, we had to visit them all in order to find out what their problems were and what kind of support we could offer them. We had emergency relief supplies we could offer particularly to children and young people. This would be within months of the end of the war, the summer of 1945 and through into 1946. One or two of the Relief Service Teams were able to get into Germany before the end of hostilities. Friends were already well known in Germany because of the Quaker work done after the first world war. At this time there were about 190 Quakers left in Germany. They had suffered grieviously and I had the good fortune to make friends with some of them which have lasted a lifetime.

Finally I was released from the conditions of my exemption from military service and I returned to complete my apprenticeship as a joiner.

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