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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
ALFRED ERNEST STATTON 1890 - 1919  

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The Military Service Act 1916 made all men between 18 and 41 years of age soldiers, but it did not call all of them up to the Army at the same time. A variety of conditions relating to age, occupation and marital status all delayed call-up for months, if not years.

Alfred Ernest Statton was married and working as a machinist in Cardiff when Conscription came into law in March 1916. This delayed his call-up by several months, until the Military Service Act, slipped through Parliament by the guarantee that married men would not be affected, was expanded to encompass all men between 18 and 41, regardless of their domestic situation. He would have been called up in late 1916, and appeared before the Cardiff Tribunal. Though it is unknown what verdict the Cardiff Tribunal decided, Alfred must have been unhappy with the outcome, as he resolved to refuse any further cooperation with the conscription system.

Instead of reporting to barracks as a soldier, non-combatant or otherwise, Alfred refused and forced his arrest as an absentee from the Army. He was eventually transferred under guard to Cardiff barracks, where he was expected to obey orders - his decision to refuse all compromise led to a court martial in December, and a sentence of six months in prison.

Alfred spent only a month of his sentence in prison, having been sent to Wormwood Scrubs to appear before the Central Tribunal, who passed him suitable for the Home Office Scheme. Before he could be transferred out of prison, Alfred began to become ill. Conditions in prison during the war were harsh and needlessly punitive, putting immense strain on the mental health of those subjected to them. Any prison sentence was accompanied by an initial period on the “First Division”, where the prison authorities tried to break the spirit of their victims through isolation, a starvation diet and silence. Many COs remarked that the first months of their first sentence were the most difficult, and mental illness incurred by these experiences was common.

By the time Alfred was transferred from Wormwood Scrubs to the Home Office Scheme, he had served almost two months in prison, and was seriously ill. After two months on the Home Office Scheme in Wakefield, his condition had deteriorated, and he was admitted to Wakefield Asylum in late March 1917. Four months later he would be discharged from the Army permanently as mentally unfit. Conscription, having forced Alfred into the Army, now discarded him as a broken man.

Alfred would never return to Cardiff, dying in Hereford Asylum at the beginning of 1919. He died as a victim of war as much as any soldier, his health and life destroyed by the conditions conscription had forced him to endure.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1890
Died: 1990
Address: 6 Sophia Street, Cardiff
Tribunal: Cardiff
Prison: Wormwood Scrubs
HO Scheme:Wakefield [1]
CO Work:
Occupation: Machinist
NCF:Cardiff
Motivation:
[2]
ABSOLUTIST

 


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WIDER CONTEXT | more
ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION
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CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
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TRIBUNALS | more
SENTENCED TO DEATH | more
PRISONS | more
HOME OFFICE CENTRES | more

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