MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT |
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MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | |
| ROBERT G. PURSAILL 1883 - |
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| Long before he made the decision to refuse to take life as a Conscientious Objector, Robert Pursail was dedicated to saving and enhancing the lives of others. A practicing Quaker and social worker, he worked with the Bedford Institute, a charitable organisation helping to alleviate some of the sufferings of London's poorest communities. His dedication to improving other people's lives extended to his Conscientious Objection after he was conscripted in September 1916. Going before the Finsbury Tribunal, he was determined not to take life as a soldier and was adamant that, instead, he would go to do constructive work as a member of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU). The Finsbury Tribunal agreed, and passed Robert Exempt from Combatant Service, provided he joined the FAU, which he did in late September. The FAU provided medical support at home and abroad, working largely with French forces on the Western Front and supplementing meagre medical contingents with ambulance trains and buses. While it is not known in which part of the FAU Robert worked, he was with the unit from September 1916 to February 1919 and, wherever he was and whatever work he was doing, his time with the FAU would have led, directly or indirectly, to many lives being saved that otherwise would have been destroyed by the violence of war. Conscientious Objectors like Robert demonstrated an important point - that it was possible to save, rather than take, life.
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