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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
JAMES H. DONALD 1885 -  

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James Donald, born 1885, was working as a Gardener in Blairgowrie in 1916 when, with the passage of the Military Service Act through Parliament, he was conscripted as a soldier. James applied for exemption from conscription as a Conscientious Objector. Though his motivations and reasons for doing so are unknown, his anti-war stand seems to have been centred around a resistance to actively participating in warfare - not refusing to be involved in any way, but the simple and stark refusal to kill.

His application to the local Blairgowrie Tribunal was heard on the 24th of March 1916, which passed him “Exempt from Combatant Service Only”. This was the most common verdict given to Objectors at local Tribunals, and one that many rejected as it would see them sent to the Army and expected to willingly become a soldier - albeit a non-combatant one.

James, however, took up the exemption and was transferred to the Non-Combatant Corps (NCC), reporting at the Hamilton barracks on the 17th of April. As a soldier in the NCC he would be expected to follow orders, wear a uniform and consciously hand over his individual autonomy to the Army. This decision was rarely made lightly, and many COs had to think long and hard before accepting it. NCC men were soldiers, protected only by a promise that they would not have to handle, use or transport weaponry. It’s James’ decision to take up the NCC that sheds light on his reasons for becoming a CO. Being an NCC man meant being part of the wider war machine, and participating in the war through labour and logistical tasks behind the lines, either on the home front or in France. Accepting the NCC came with an implicit acknowledgement that you were part of the war - and a conscientious objection that could be met with a non-combatant role, rather than a total rejection of conscription.

Whatever James’ motivation, joining the NCC meant a month of training in Hamilton, before his battalion, most likely the 1st Scottish battalion of the NCC, was shipped to France. He stayed with the NCC in France for the next three years. NCC work in France was often difficult and intentionally degrading, and was frequently marred with personal and even, upon occasion, physical abuse. James would have been put to work on transporting material, loading and unloading shipments, sanitation, road repair and other support tasks. By 1919, as the British Army was being steadily demobilised, Conscientious Objectors in the NCC were considered the lowest priority, and James returned home as one of the last Conscientious Objectors to be demobilised in November 1919.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1885
Died:
Address: 52 Leslie Street, Blairgowrie, Scotland
Tribunal: Blairgowrie
Prison:
HO Scheme: [1]
CO Work:
Occupation: Gardener

Motivation:
[2]
NON-COMBATANT

 


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CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
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