Tom Allen was one of three Roman Catholic brothers from Nelson in Lancashire who made a stand against conscription by becoming Conscientious Objectors. Tom was the youngest child of the Allen family and had two younger brothers - Peter and James, and two sisters, Margaret and Mary. The family had a long history of anti-war activism and Tom’s father had been involved in the organised opposition to the Boer war.

Peter and Tom were unusual conscientious objectors as they did not go before a local tribunal. Instead, correctly predicting that conscription was on its way, they moved together to Ireland to set up a business, hoping to evade the entire process. Unfortunately for them, while conscription was never introduced in Ireland, they were arrested and handed over to the military regardless! By April 1916, they were back in Nelson before the Magistrates court, where both Peter and Tom were fined 40/- and handed over to the military.

As with many other Conscientious Objectors, it was in the hands of the military that Peter found his objection strenuously tested. By May 1916 Tom and Peter were in Gosport Military Prison, sentenced to 28 days imprisonment for disobeying military orders. During this sentence they were treated brutally and their case became well known in the CO movement. After this short but violent sentence, they were released into the main body of the army only to disobey orders again and find themselves sentenced to two years hard labour. After several months, Tom was transferred to Wormwood Scrubs.

While in Wormwood Scrubs, Tom went before the Central Tribunal who would assess his suitability for the Home Office Scheme. Despite clearly being dedicated to peace and determined to resist all efforts to force him into the army, Tom was not judged to be a “genuine CO” and was not offered the compromise of the Home Office Scheme. Roman Catholic COs often had a difficult time convincing Tribunals that they were genuine. Aside from a still widespread anti-catholic bias, as part of an organised denomination where prominent members supported the war, Catholic COs could not argue from authority instead. They were usually asked why when Catholic chaplains supported the war, they believed they knew better than a priest? For many COs this was a difficult question to answer.

After being rejected by the Central Tribunal, Tom was transferred to Felixstowe prison, and sentenced to another two years hard labour.

It was during this, the third of Tom’s prison sentences that tragedy struck his family. The CO newspaper, The Tribunal, recorded what happened to Peter in December 1918.

It is our sad duty this week to record one of the most pathetic tragedies which our movement has yet seen.
At the end of September Tom, Peter and James Allen of Nelson were given two days leave from prison to attend the funeral of their mother.
A fortnight ago they were again given leave for the death of their youngest sister and found on their arrival that their eldest sister had collapsed. James Allen, from Durham prison, who has served two years, was in failing health and was ordered by the family doctor to go to bed at once and not to return to prison without his permission.

A request was forwarded to the home secretary asking for an extension of leave for Tom and Peter from Ipswich prison so they could assist at home. Permission was given for James to stay on receipt of a doctor’s certificate, but Tom and Peter were ordered back to prison. By this time, however, these two were confined to bed and certificates were sent in their case also.

On Thursday December 5th Tom Allen died and two days later Peter also passed away. They were interred on December 10th.

Tom Allen died not in prison, but as a result of the conditions he had been pointlessly kept in for two and a half years. From the end of 1917 deaths after temporary release prison were becoming ever more common. The Allen brother’s deaths were typical. A CO, malnourished, denied exercise and kept in cramped, filthy conditions suffering from mental and physical anguish would be released while already near-fatally ill. Weak as they were, they couldn’t resist the waves of disease that accompanied the end of the war and became a casualty of the great epidemics, but one where responsibility can be squarely lain at the foot of the government who had imprisoned them despite their legal right to their Conscientious Objection.

Tom is commemorated alongside his brother on the Conscientious Objector memorial plaque, which records many of the COs who died as a result of their treatment during the war. The plaque carries an inscription that holds true to the aims of Conscientious Objectors like Tom who lost their lives in an attempt to show it was possible to resist war - “it is by the faith of the idealist that the ideal comes true”