大象传媒

Door slam

AM:听 On the 29th May, 1916, my second cousin Alfred Martlew heard that sound for the last time.听 That was the day he and his fellow Conscientious Objectors were taken from these cells beneath Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire to France鈥� to be shot.
The last time I came here I was in uniform.听 It just before I flew out to join my Regiment as an Army Chaplain for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.听

This is an act of worship about conscience 鈥� not just theirs then, but ours, now.听
How far are you and I prepared to go for what we believe is right?
That question of divided loyalties is well posed by our opening hymn.听 The first verse is about loyalty to our country, but the second about loyalty to something else, something greater.

Music:听I vow to thee my country
听听Wallingford Parish Church
听听The Hymns Album

AM: Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
may our ears be open to your word,
may our lives be true to our faith,
may our hearts be faithful to our calling to follow your Son,
wherever your Holy Spirit leads us.
Amen

Interview with Megan Leyland

AM: We鈥檙e standing in a cell, a straight forward cell, whitewashed walls, a heavy wooden door.听 Outside life is going on as normal; there鈥檚 a school party having a look around Richmond Castle. But here we鈥檙e suddenly back into 1916. And with me today is Megan Leyland from English Heritage.

Megan tell me about this place.

ML: We鈥檙e standing in a block of 8 cells spread across two floors in a building originally built as a reserve armoury in the 19th century and positioned next to the grand towering Norman keep of Richmond Castle.
This cell, first of all, it鈥檚 important to know it鈥檚 a really confined space, we can just about reach from one side of the cell to the other width wise. And smothered across the wall are inscriptions, are drawings, are portraits, stories written in pencil on the delicate Lyme washed walls. And this is graffiti created some of it by Conscientious Objectors to the First World War and some of it later in the 20th Century.

AM: Who鈥檚 this here? A picture of, a very well drawn picture of a lady labelled Kathleen.

ML:听 It鈥檚 not Kathleen, is the first thing to point out. This is Annie Wainwright who was the fianc茅 of one of the Conscientious Objectors who was held here, John Hubert Brocklesby.听 And when he came to Richmond Castle, he refused to peel potatoes for officers, he refused to go on parade, he found himself in this cell and perhaps, thinking of home, think of those he loved, he drew this beautiful drawing of his fianc茅, which actually, has later been relabelled as Kathleen, perhaps by a soldier who was here later, another Conscientious Objector who wanted to have some of that comfort which perhaps Brocklesby found in the image of his loved one.

Over here on the opposite wall we have another image drawn by Brocklesby however this one really clearly expresses his religious beliefs; his religious reasons for objecting to the war.听 He was a Methodist from Connisborough and a teacher and evidently quite a good artist. Here we have a man bent over, lying on the floor with a cross laid across his back. Underneath is written 鈥淓very cross grows light beneath the shadow Lord of thine.鈥�
And, you know, there are words all over the wall offering support to other conscientious objectors who came in, offering solidarity, strength in their convictions.

As you walk through the cells the more you look, the more you see and actually you begin to notice that there are verses from the bible and even whole hymns transcribed from memory.

AM: Did they sing?

ML: Actually, yeah, we do know, they did sing from the Diary of Norman Gaudie. He actually mentions a particular situation where three Conscientious Objectors held here, Brocklesby, Gaudie and Myers, sang a three part version of Nearer My God to Thee here in the cells and actually, Myers perhaps wasn鈥檛 keeping in time and the other prisoners were banging on the floor to try and keep him in time with all the other singing.

MUSIC: 听Nearer my God to The听
听听Bryn Terfel
听听Simple Gifts

AM: Conscientious Objectors fell into two categories, those motivated by religious faith 鈥� Methodists, Jehovah鈥檚 Witnesses and, most of all, members of The Society of Friends - Quakers.听 But there were also those who refused to kill their fellow men, largely members of the Independent Labour Party.听 My cousin Alfred was one of these.听 He was a clerk in the Rowntree Cocoa Works in York and an Absolutist.听听听 His original request for complete exemption from any form of military service had been turned down.听 This is what he wrote to the Appeal panel:

Reader : I applied to the Local Tribunal for absolute and complete exemption, on the grounds that I hold, and have held for some years, a conscientious objection to warfare as it involves the killing of human beings, which I firmly believe is, from a moral, sociological and humanitarian point of view, absolutely wrong, as it is in conflict with the principle of the Brotherhood of Man and the solidarity of the Human Race. The local tribunal granted me exemption from 鈥楥ombatant Service鈥� only, but I cannot consent to any kind of 鈥楴on-Combatant Service鈥� under the Military Service Act 1916, and I am prepared to be myself sacrificed, rather than be the means of sacrificing others.
Signed, Alfred Martlew 16th March 1916

AM: His appeal for absolute exemption was dismissed.听
Alfred was a socialist, but it was sometimes hard to disentangle the religious from the political in the reasons for conscientious objection.
One of the most powerful statements of the pacifist position had been published in the journal of the Independent Labour Party in September 1914.听 written by Dr Alfred Salter who later became a Labour MP:

Reader : Look! Christ in khaki, out in France thrusting his bayonet into the body of a German workman.听 See! The Son of God with a machine gun, ambushing a column of German infantry, catching them unawares in a lane and mowing them down in their helplessness.听 Hark! The Man of Sorrows in a cavalry charge, cutting, hacking, thrusting, cheering.听 No! No! That picture is an impossible one and we all know it!

MUSIC: 听Kyrie from The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace
听听Karl Jenkins
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
听听London Philharmonic Orchestra
听听The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace
听听
AM: I鈥檝e come out of the whitewashed cells into a small stone building with a vaulted roof and a wonderful view out across the river to the green hills beyond.听 This is the chapel of Richmond Castle, very different to where we were before.
And the 鈥渃onchies鈥� were very different to the rest of the nation.
Although there were some Christian churches that supported the pacifist position, the vast majority, certainly of the Established Church, strongly backed the war effort.
Clergymen served on the Tribunals that refused to support conscientious objectors, and Bishops preached sermons encouraging men to volunteer for military service.听 The German Army was committing atrocities in Belgium, and British propaganda wasn鈥檛 underplaying its hand.听 So there was a genuinely-held belief that this country was fighting the barbarians, and churchmen could find biblical support for their views.听 Here鈥檚 the Book of Joel:

Reader
Proclaim this among the nations:
听Prepare war!
Stir up the warriors!
Let all the soldiers draw near. Let them come up.
Beat your ploughshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say,
鈥淚 am a warrior!鈥�
Bring down your warriors O Lord.

听

MUSIC: 听Sanctus from The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace
听听Karl Jenkins
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
听听London Philharmonic Orchestra
听听The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace

AM:听 Just outside the castle is a memorial to the Richmond Sixteen. They鈥檇 endured all manner of insults as they passed through the hands of local Tribunals.听 These were men who would have nothing at all to do with anything military, so of course the first thing the Army did was to try and make them wear uniform.听 Norman Gaudie had been a footballer 鈥� he鈥檇 played centre forward for Sunderland.听 He was a member of the Congregational Church and an Absolutist.听 On his way to Richmond Castle he鈥檇 been taken to the barracks in Jarrow and forced into uniform.听 He recorded what happened in his diary:

Reader
I was then taken to the Guard Room and there I regretted having allowed them to dress me (in uniform), I at once proceeded to take them off and with only my waistcoat, pants and socks, sat awaiting developments; the guard had evidently seen my antics through the watch-hole and he came to ask me what I meant, did I refuse to wear them, I said 鈥淵es鈥�, so he reported me.听 This brought a body of men determined to put on the uniform.听 The original number did not prove sufficient so they were supplemented by the guard on duty, and a pair of handcuffs.听

My only regret on looking back is for a little incident which I am sorry to say had a suggestion of spleen, and that was my action in nodding my hat onto the ground after the Corporal threatened to put me on a charge if I did so. I remarked, 鈥淭here, put in a charge鈥�, and flopped the hat on the floor鈥�

AM:听 So they sent him off, still handcuffed and with an escort on the train to Richmond Castle.

Another of the Richmond prisoners was Bert Brocklesby from Conisborough in south Yorkshire. He was the prisoner who鈥檇听 drawn his fianc茅e on the cell wall.
Before the war he鈥榙 been a teacher.听听 He was a Methodist, played the organ in his local Chapel and he was a popular Lay Preacher 鈥� until, that is, he preached two pacifist sermons and then the invitations dried up.听 Ironically his journey into the military started in exactly the same place as mine 鈥� in the barracks on Wakefield Road in Pontefract.听 As soon as he arrived there he was surrounded by burly soldiers who 鈥減ersuaded鈥� him to put his uniform on.听 In the same place 70 years later, I was proud to put on my Army Chaplain鈥檚 uniform for the first time.听 As part of my Christian ministry.

Bert, Norman and my cousin Alfred met for the first time in the cells under Richmond Castle, but they didn鈥檛 stay there long.
On May 29th 1916 the 16 prisoners were taken out of their cells to begin their journey to France.听 They eventually got to a camp on a windswept hill above Boulogne.听 It was full of soldiers who鈥檇 just been in the trenches.听 The conchies weren鈥檛 welcome.

Music听听 Lead Kindly Light
听听Malcolm Archer; Wells Cathedral Choir
听听The English Hymn Vol. 5

AM: We鈥檝e come from Richmond Castle just a very short step into the middle of the Catterick training area. We鈥檙e walking through a wood that, actually I鈥檝e slept in and so, on a different occasion, has the man I鈥檓 with. The Revd. Nicholas Mercer is now an Anglican Priest but he used to be Lieutenant Colonel Mercer, a senior army lawyer, in fact, the Commander鈥檚 legal advisor when he and I went into Iraq in 2003.

But Nicholas, going back to 1916, and the Conscientious Objectors, why were the absolutists taken to France?

NM: The reason was because if they disobeyed a lawful command on active service, then of course, they could be sentenced to death and only by taking them to France were they technically on active service at that point.

AM: So they were taken to France to be shot?

NM: That seems to have been the intent, yes.
From the reports I鈥檝e read they were treated very badly indeed in jail. They were regularly beaten, they were given very meagre rations, and were regularly assaulted.

AM: What was the Court Marshall process that they went through? Was it a proper Court Marshall?

NM: No it wasn鈥檛 in any shape or form, they don鈥檛 seem to have had legal aid, they don鈥檛 seem to have had defence lawyers, they don鈥檛 seem to have been able to put their defence at all. It was a field Court Marshall and was just really a legal formality.

After the Court Marshall had concluded it seems, again rather extraordinarily that the sentences weren鈥檛 pronounced in court, they were pronounced publically on the parade ground and the soldiers were left to hear their sentence read out there and then.

AM: We鈥檝e actually got Bert Brocklesby鈥檚 own voice recorded in 1988 by the Imperial War Museum talking about that event.

ARCHIVE
Our sentences were read out on 24th June. The Non-combatant corps to which we were nominally belonged was lined up on three sides of a square while we from the Orrivale guard room were lined up along the fourth side. The captain read out the promulgations which I quote from memory.

鈥淭he Accused were tried by Field General Court Marshall on the 13th Day of June, had been found guilty and sentenced to death, the sentence has been confirmed by Field-Marshall Sir Douglas Hague and commuted to 10 years penal servitude.

MUSIC: 听The Lord鈥檚 Prayer
听听John Rutter; The Cambridge Singers
听听Hail, Gladdening Light 鈥� Music of the English Church
听听Composer: Robert Stone

READER:听 Jesus said, 鈥淵ou have heard that it was said, 鈥楨ye for eye, and tooth for tooth. 鈥楤ut I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.听

鈥淵ou have heard that it was said, 鈥楲ove your neighbour and hate your enemy.鈥櫶� But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,听 that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

AM: Those words of Jesus from Matthew鈥檚 Gospel have always been a challenge for me as a Priest in the Army, but at least I never carried a weapon.听 Nicholas Mercer was an Army lawyer, and a Christian, and he carried a gun.听 Nicholas, how did you wrestle with your conscience?

NM: Well I think, in the Christian tradition, there are two possible avenues you can take. First of all there鈥檚 the pacifist tradition and a lot of these men, the Richmond 16 were very committed Christians and Pacifists. Then of course, as Christianity became the state religion under Constantine, of course, you were then presented with the problem of a Christian empire and people at your gate who threatened that Christian empire. So as a Christian, I鈥檓 not against bearing arms in certain circumstances.

AM: How would you feel about shooting somebody?

NM: Well, it鈥檚 a very interesting question. I think as a matter of self-defence I wouldn鈥檛 have problem. I think that St. Augustine wrestled with this issue and said that you could shoot someone to protect your neighbour but not protect your own life. I鈥檓 not sure I even go as far as that.听 I think as you get older your views change to. I think that as a young man I was less sensitive to these things, as an older man now, in my fifties, and as an Anglican priest, I鈥檓 very glad I never had to do that.

MUSIC: 听Agnus Dei from The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace
听听Karl Jenkins
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
听听London Philharmonic Orchestra
听听The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace

AM:听 I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 ever easy being a Christian in wartime.听 Different people come to different conclusions, all in good faith.听

For some this meant joining up in a role that didn鈥檛 require them to kill people 鈥� but required enormous amounts of courage, both physical and moral. The Friends Ambulance Unit was formed at the beginning of the war to give members of the Society of Friends and other, a way of relieving the suffering of those caught up in the war.

We鈥檝e come to their memorial at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire to meet Anthony Wilson from the Quaker Service Memorial Trust

Anthony, Can you describe this memorial please?

AW: It鈥檚 constructed of a local limestone, four high backed seats with four entrances, north, south, east and west, so people can come from any direction and sit quietly as individuals or as a group an reflect on the service which was given by people as pacifists in the second world war to relieve the suffering that was being experienced right round the word.

AM: Going back to the first world war and the FAU being formed, how official were they?

AW: When the war started of course, there wasn鈥檛 conscription. When conscription came, it was quite a dilemma for many members and as we鈥檇 expect, different people in the unit took different decisions.听 But the unit did continue its work evacuating hundreds of thousands of wounded troops from the western front. They were quite prepared to evacuate wounded soldiers under fire and 21 FAU members did lose their lives in the course of the first world war.

AM: What was the role of the FAU in the Second World War.

AW: It was reconstituted to perform much the same听 role which is to say they were prepared to work with the military on ambulance work at the front as well as civilians. The Friends Relief Service was the official organisation and they only worked with civilians and they were actually the first civilian team to go into Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp and the leader of that team was Jewish.

AM: In the Second World War, the nation was fighting a regime that was manifestly evil. For yourself, Anthony, as a pacifist, how do you think you鈥檇 have reacted in that situation?

AW: I didn鈥檛 have to make that decision until 6 years after the war had finished. I had no doubt at that time that I wanted to be a conscientious objector and not to avoid service, but to do that service where I would be truly useful and able to express my, I hope , constructive pacifism.
How would I have reacted had I had to decide on my stance in the Second World War. I think I would have been prepared to face a tribunal as a Conscientious Objector and whether I would have accepted the work that I would have been directed to by the tribunal, I have to say depends on what the work was.

AM: What鈥檚 always worried me about Pacifism is that I鈥檓 putting my personal conscience first?

AW: I wouldn鈥檛 want to accept the wording putting our conscience first. It鈥檚 a very difficult decision and putting it first makes it sound as if there鈥檚 an element of self-interest involved. And I find it very hard to imagine when there could be.听 People expect to pay a price for following their conscience, not to receive any kind of advantage. But asking a pacifist in 1939 what would have been the right thing to do, faced with Nazi Germany, and all that it stood for, and all that we could see it was prepared to do, and Quakers knew more than most people what it was doing already, can only leave one feeling very very humble that the vast majority of people听 in this country and round the world were prepared to fight for my right not to.

Music: 听O valiant hearts
听听Andrew Earis: Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields
听听Specially Recorded (First Tx: 46/11)听

AM: We鈥檙e in a rural churchyard, by various busy roads on the edge of York. Across the road is the archbishop鈥檚 palace, and beyond that, the river Ouse.听 Back in June 1916, at the same time as the men in France were hearing their death sentences, questions were being asked in Parliament, and very quickly the conscientious objectors were brought back to Britain to begin their prison sentences.听

Ros Batchelor from the Society of Friends in York听 brings us back to the story of my cousin Alfred.听 So Ros, what happened when they left France?

RB: Alfred came back with the other men and was in prison in Winchester and in Wormwood scrubs. He appeared before a central tribunal that decide he was a CO, he was taken up to Dyce Quarry, up in Scotland at Aberdeen and they were breaking stone which was for making roads and the men there got very upset because they did discover that the roads had a military purpose.

AM: Alfred鈥檚 grave is in the churchyard at Brishopthorpe. Is there anything significant about this headstone?

RB: Well, it鈥檚 a very simple headstone compared to any of the others here. And to me it says there鈥檚 a Quaker connection and I wonder whether it was provided, perhaps paid for by Rowntree鈥檚, chocolate factor where he had worked.

In the summer just before he died, he told friends that he was very upset because he had been let down听 by the Government. He felt that they had made promises to him about the work that he would be asked to do and he had found that it was of a military support nature and he was very upset about it. Alfred, made his way back to York where his Fianc茅 was, and he left her with some of his money and some of his papers and the next thing we know is that he was found drowned in the River here. He didn鈥檛 leave a听 note so the inquest and the verdict was very kind to him. It literally does say 鈥淔ound drowned in the River Ouse鈥�.
What happened to Alfred after he left France?

MUSIC: 听Benedictus from The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace
听听Karl Jenkins
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
听听London Philharmonic Orchestra
听听The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace

MUSIC - Benedictus from Armed Man

AM: Let us pray.
Lord, give us the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it.
Give us a strong faith when we need to stand against the crowd.

Lord, give us the humility to accept that sometimes we are wrong and need to learn from others.
Give us the knowledge of your loving presence with us, so that when we make a wrong choice, you will guide us back into the way of Truth.

We pray this morning for all those who take a stand for the sake of their conscience and those for whom this is costly.
We pray for those who have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown,
those who have sacrificed life or health as peacemakers and peacekeepers,
those who have been part of wars which have troubled their consciences.

And we pray for the victims of war, those who have suffered death or injury,
those who have lost their homes and their families,
those who have been scarred by memories they cannot erase,
those who live with the pain of conflicts past and present
and for ourselves, that we may live as followers of the Prince of Peace.
In his name we pray.
Amen

And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you and remain with you, always.
Amen

MUSIC: 听For the Fallen
听听David Lloyd-Jones:大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra, 大象传媒 Symphony 听听听Chorus,Soprano, Susan Gritton
听听Spirit of England by Edward Elgar
听听CD: Elgar 鈥� The Spirit of England