James Henry (Jim) Batten was born in north London, on 12 July 1898. His father’s taste for alcohol blighted Jim’s childhood, and he died in 1912 before Jim left school in 1914, aged just 12. Jim’s first job was delivering medicines for a local doctor. By the time Jim was called up in February 1917, he was living in East Finchley, north London, with his mother and two younger sisters and was working for a firm of wholesale druggists in Bishopsgate. He did not report for service as directed and was arrested at home by the police. He was taken to nearby Mill Hill barracks, where he refused an order to undress for a medical, for which offence he was court-martialed on 22 March.

Jim told his court-martial that he had an objection to being part of the “military machine”, one of whose functions was “the subjugation of the working class”. Being a member of that class, he saw the military machine as his enemy and, as such, he would “emphatically refuse to become part of it”. As one of the proletariats with no stake in the country, “its fate at the hands of its capitalistic enemys does not concern me”. He believed that each new recruit made the prospect of peace more distant, that it was his duty to “remain outside and help to bring to a close this mad struggle for world domination and that these views are sufficient to establish my claim for absolute exemption”. He concluded his statement with a message to “the class which is not represented by any member of the court: Workers of the World unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to gain”. Jim was found guilty as charged and sentenced to 101 days imprisonment with hard labour.

Army Order X of May 1916 had directed that COs convicted by court-martial of offences against discipline should be held in the nearest civil prison. In Jim’s case, this was Wormwood Scrubs, and he was transferred there on 27 March. A voracious reader- who sometimes would forego lunch to buy a second-hand book- and life-long atheist, Jim must have been doubly frustrated to have only the Bible to read at some stage of his sentence. However, he retained a good knowledge of the Bible for the rest of his life. Since June 1916, all imprisoned COs had been referred to the Central Appeals Tribunal. COs judged to be genuine would be released from prison provided they accepted to undertake work of ‘national importance’ under the control of a civilian committee responsible for running what became known as the Home Office Scheme. When the Tribunal met on 12 May, it agreed to seek references before deciding on Jim’s case. Jim’s referee asserted that he had “a deep rooted objection to any form of Military Service, that his views had been acquired ....... after patient study and long reflection and praised his high moral character”. The Tribunal’s final decision was that Jim’s objection was genuine and that he could be released from prison and military control subject to his taking part in the Home Office scheme. Jim agreed to this and on 20 June, he left Wormwood Scrubs after 91 days there and travelled to the newly opened Princetown Work Centre in Devon, based in the buildings of Dartmoor Prison; the convicts having been transferred to other prisons for the duration of the war.

Jim’s view of his time in the work camp was a whole positive one. Brought up in dirty and smoky inner-city Edwardian London, he revelled in the fresh air and sweeping views of Dartmoor: being in the work camp was like the holiday he had never had, he would say in later years. The COs were allowed out onto the moor in their free time- although they were forbidden from entering towns- and

Jim walked extensively over the moor, leading to a life-long connection with Dartmoor. Jim’s mind was stimulated, and his horizons expanded when he mixed with his fellow COs, who were older and better educated than him. Finally, Jim had the satisfaction of knowing that the work he was engaged on- digging drainage trenches down the slopes of Great Mis Tor to improve the flow of water into the prison canal which ran from high on the moor to provide the prison’s water supply- was worthwhile and would stand the test of time, unlike much of the work done by the COs.

After just over a year at Princetown, he qualified for the Exceptional Employment Scheme, which allowed COs to find their employment from within an approved list of trades and to be released from the Home Office scheme subject to satisfactory reports from the employer, in Jim’s case the North London Firewood Company. He left Princetown on 11 July 1918 to return home to East Finchley. In June 1919, Jim was released from the exceptional employment scheme and was free to take up any employment although it would not be until March 1920 that he would be completely discharged from the military. In October 1919 Jim qualified as a dispensing assistant with the Society of Apothecaries so it seems likely that he had returned to work in that area. In 1927 he joined the firm of Charles Zimmerman and Co Ltd which specialised in perfumery products and essential oils and in 1938 became factory manager. During WW2 he was Instrumental in securing the future of the firm after its factory was destroyed in the London blitz. He became a highly skilled compounder of perfumes and essential oils and an expert on the production of high-quality essential oils by distillation. He finally retired in 1965 aged 67- a total working life of 55 years!

In November 1920 Jim married Leah Lewis. They spent their honeymoon in Princetown and Jim took Leah up Great Mis Tor to look down on the work he had done. Leah’s and Jim’s time together was, however, all too short: she died in March 1923 of tuberculosis aged just 22 and Jim remained a widower for almost 11 years until he married Winnie Wilds in January 1934. Winnie and Jim remained together until Jim’s death on 19 October 1979 aged 81. His ashes were scattered from the summit of Great Mis Tor.

Text by Geoffrey Batten. Quotations are from James Batten’s documents.