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ROBERT REES 1891 -  

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Conscientious Objectors who took up Work of National Importance (WNI) are often seen as having taken the “easy option”. WNI ostensibly meant working in a related field to your own occupation, with standard rates of pay and a minimum of official interference in your life. The reality was very different, even when a CO was accepted by a large national organisation.

Robert Rees, from Aberystwyth, was 25 and working as a Railway clerk when he was conscripted in 1916. He applied for exemption as a Conscientious Objector to Military Service to his local tribunal, and though neither his motivation nor the verdict of the Aberystwyth Tribunal are known, it is possible from his wartime experiences to piece together both. Firstly, the Aberystwyth Tribunal either gave him no exemption or one that he felt was impossible for him to accept, perhaps Exemption from Combatant Service Only, or another form of exemption that would see him placed into the Army. We know this as shortly after his Tribunal hearing he appealed to the Cardiganshire County Appeal Tribunal, which passed him exempt provided that he took up Work of National Importance.

This WNI verdict would see him referred to the Pelham Committee for the Employment of Conscientious Objectors, a board set up to oversee the types of work, along with the terms and conditions that defined it, offered to WNI COs. He was employed through the auspices of the Pelham committee from the 29th May 1916 to the 14th of August 1918. The Pelham Committee reccommended Robert to the Friends Ambulance Unit, which took him on for “general service”. General Service meant that instead of working on the well known Ambulance Trains behind the French lines on the Front, Robert was shuffled between a variety of roles while working for the FAU as and when demanded.

Robert’s initial work with the FAU is unknown, but was likely to be either in medical, agricultural or transport work. Though recommended to the FAU by the Pelham Committee, the committee could still dictate where and when Robert was working, and in October 1917 withdrew him from the FAU and sent him to work at a tuberculosis sanatorium, where he would remain until summer 1918. The FAU brought him back under their direct control in August, and put him to work on market gardening at Trefecca College, where it is likely that he remained until the end of the war. Such shuffling was not uncommon, as WNI COs were seen as a resource to be spent and used as and when neccessary. No matter the disruption or financial, emotional or physical cost, taking up WNI meant going where work could be found - and often reluctantly travelling across country to work in poor conditions for severely restricted pay.

It could be said that Robert’s affiliation with the FAU shows a clear motivation for his objection, as the Quaker basis of the organisation may suggest that Robert was himself a Quaker. This need not be the case, as the FAU employed many men without Quaker ties or faith - and so Robert’s motivations for rejecting war remain unknown.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1891
Died:
Address: 8 Trinity Place, Aberystwyth, Wales
Tribunal: Aberystwyth
Prison:
HO Scheme: [1]
CO Work: FAU
Occupation: Railway Clerk

Motivation:
[2]
ALTERNATIVIST

 


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