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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT |
GEORGE STEVENS ABBOTT 1888 - 1969  

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George Stevens ABBOTT was born 18 October 1888, and lived in Bridport, Dorset, a partner in the family building firm. A Wesleyan Methodist by faith, at the beginning of the Great War in 1914, he considered offering his services to the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, but did not pursue it. With the introduction of conscription in 1916, he applied for exemption as a conscientious objector but was refused by the Bridport Military Service Tribunal, and likewise by the Dorset County Appeal Tribunal. He ignored the subsequent notice to report to Dorchester Barracks, was arrested by a civilian police constable, and taken before Bridport Magistrates’ Court on 5 April 1916, where he was handed over to a military escort of 3 Battalion, Dorset Regiment, who took him to Dorchester Barracks. There he disobeyed an order to put on a uniform, and was held in the guardroom until 7 April, when he was taken to Wyke Regis Barracks, and then to Weymouth, where he faced a court-martial on 2 June 1916, being sentenced to one year imprisonment with hard labour, later commuted to 112 days.

He was taken to Wormwood Scrubs, London, on 14 June 1916 to begin his sentence, but on 4 August 1916 he appeared before the Central Tribunal, sitting at the prison, who found him a “genuine” CO, after all, and offered him admission to the Home Office Scheme, whereby COs could be released from prison subject to agreeing to do civilian work under civilian control. George agreed to this, and on 14 August 1916 was transferred to Risbridge House, Kedington, to do work on a road at Clare, Suffolk, under the aegis of the Road Board. On the completion of the road contract, he was transferred on 10 January 1917 to the Home Office Work Centre established within the Warwick Prison building, and then on 15 March 1917 to the newly established Work Centre in the Dartmoor Prison building, Princetown, Devon. There he remained until final discharge in April 1919. Like a number of COs, he compiled an autograph book signed by other COs.

Afterwards he resumed his place in the family firm, designing and building Bridport Power Station in 1929, and a home for his family: he was now married to Mabel Purkiss, sister of Harry Purkiss (WW1 CO), with children in 1930. His sister Henrietta married Horace Fuller (WW1 CO). George died on 21 October 1969.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1888
Died: 1969
Address: 17 Barrack Street, Bridport
Tribunal: Bridport, CO exemption refused
Prison: Wormwood Scrubs
HO Scheme:Clare, Warwick, Dartmoor[1]
CO Work:
Occupation: Builder/architect (family firm)

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