George Dardis was remembered by his colleagues and friends as an ardent socialist and anti-war activist with a long-standing opposition to war from before 1914. As a member of the Independent Labour Party, George held the common socialist belief that the war was for the benefit of the ruling classes of Britain, even though it would be paid for in the effort, blood and lives of the working class.

Unsurprisingly, these views meant that he became very active in the anti-war and anti-conscription movement in his home town of Risca in Monmouthshire. By 1916 he was the head of the local branch of the No-Conscription Fellowship, the national organisation dedicated to stopping the introduction of Conscription. In 1916, with the passing of the Military Service Act, the organisation switched its focus to supporting Conscientious Objectors - Dardis would soon fall into this category.

On the 3rd of March 1916, George was called before the Risca Tribunal to make his case as a CO, making him one of the very first men to go before a Tribunal. His application was refused, and he was given Exemption from Combatant Service only, a verdict confirmed by the Monmouthshire Appeal Tribunal later that month.

For a confirmed anti-war activist like George, this was not the end of the struggle. Instead of reporting obediently for duty as a non-combatant soldier, he refused to attend barracks and was arrested by the local police, fined as an absentee and sent under guard to Cardiff Barracks. Dardis was not intimidated by his arrest and, along with other CO comrades from Wales, swiftly set up a guardroom branch of the No-Conscription Fellowship! He wrote a letter to the NCF newspaper, the Tribunal, which cheerfully concluded:

“Flag flying cheerfully. Concerts on guard room floor a speciality. Soldiers learning “the Red Flag”. Whatever lies before us we can face it.”

Soon after writing to the NCF head offices, George and his comrades were sentenced by court martial and transferred to civilian prisons. George would go to Walton Prison, Liverpool where he stayed until called before the Central Tribunal and offered the Home Office Scheme. Taking up the scheme meant release from prison, but to the austere and harsh environment of Home Office Work Camps. By October, George was in Llanddeusant Work Camp and would subsequently be transferred to Wakefield.

By the end of 1918 George had been in the prison-like conditions of the Home Office scheme for two years and exhausted, malnourished and under heavy strain, he fell ill. Soon after, in January 1919, he died, one of many COs to die in the waves of disease that the war had spread. His death was announced in the same newspaper that had carried his jubilant message of resistance in March 1916, the Tribunal:

“We regret to announce the death from pneumonia of yet another faithful CO comrade. Geo. Dardis of Risca, Mon., a school-teacher and socialist of the first order was among the earliest to be arrested under the M.S.A in April 1916. As chairman of the first guardroom NCF, he with ten comrades carried out a successful 36 hour hunger strike against militarist coercion. After 3 months behind the iron bars of Walton jail he accepted the H.O scheme and subsequently the scheme of exceptional employment. Now he has, with others of our fallen comrades, gone down in the black death. We bare our heads at the memory of his splendid personality filled to the last with enthusiasm, love and fidelity to the great cause of world-wide brotherhood.”