Ferdinand Selwyn (known as Arnold) was the oldest of three brothers living at home in Highgate, North London, whose father was a naturalised German. All applied for exemption as Conscientious Objectors. Arnold was 28 years old and was self- employed working in the Advertising and Printing industry. He applied for absolute exemption to the Hornsey Tribunal on religious and humanitarian grounds in February 1916. His brothers Walter, 26, a lithographic artist/designer and Theodore, 24, a Managing Correspondence clerk also applied for absolute exemption on religious grounds and were referred to the Pelham committee and given work of national importance.

In his initial application for exemption he stated “My conscientious beliefs which forbid me to take up arms, also forbid me to engage in any non-combatant work that has the ultimate object the taking of life, or assists the efficiency of others for the same end…….I am ready as a citizen to do any other work that might be considered of greater urgency at this time – provided it is work I can conscientiously undertake and can put my heart and soul into.” Arnold made his religious position clear, stating: “War is against the social instincts of cooperation and common help which lead men towards a freer and more perfect existence. All men to me are brothers”.

Like many COs, Arnold submitted evidence of the genuine nature of his conscientious objection to the Tribunal. In his case this took the form of letters confirming his membership of a Young Men’s Bible Class for ten years and a letter of support and confirmation from a Mr E.W Field, who also supported Arnold’s brother, Walter. Despite this strong evidence and well-argued case, his application for exemption was refused - the Hornsey tribunal deciding that “there are not sufficient grounds for exemption”. He was offered exemption from combatant service only, which he refused, though he was willing to join the Friends Ambulance Unit to help in their vital medical work.

Arnold rejected this verdict and applied to the Middlesex Country Appeal Tribunal. There, he restated his objection to the Non-Combatant Service he had been offered: "Responsibility rests equally on the man who digs the trench, the man who brings up the ammunition and the man who fires the gun – responsibility for the mutilation and destruction of my fellow-men thus comes home to me also were I to engage in any work that promotes the efficiency of others for military purposes”.

The County of Middlesex Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision of the local tribunal to exempt from combatant service only. In his appeal to the Central Tribunal in April 1916 Arnold offered two grounds for his appeal – that Major Anstey in the House of Commons had pointed out that non-combatants were not eligible for work with the wounded and that he had a letter from the Friends Ambulance Unit stating they were willing to accept him if his case was recommended by the Board of Trade. The outcome of the Central Tribunal hearing is unknown, but at some point Arnold must have been allowed exemption on the grounds of taking up Work of National Importance (WNI) as his case was referred to the Pelham committee.

The committee had been set up to oversee COs who had accepted WNI, decide on the kinds of work which could be classed as nationally important and to set rules and guidelines for CO work. The committee put Arnold to market gardening - a common occupation for COs on WNI - in Evesham and Letchworth where he continued until the end of the war. On the 12th of November 1918 he was removed from WNI after an illness and advised to take up clerical work but, with the armistice signed, his case seems to have been allowed to lapse.

Arnold was an Alternativist CO with a very typical wartime experience for men who took up work of national importance. Men like Arnold were determined to do nothing that would advance the war effort but instead worked in important civilian occupations that helped the people around them, living up to his statement that “all men to me are brothers”.

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