THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX |
| THOMAS ERNEST ELLIS |
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| Thomas Ellis was an Absolutist Conscientious Objector, one who could not make any form of compromise with the military over his objection to warfare. He would have been called up under the Military Service Act in early 1916, but instead applied for exemption on the grounds of a Conscientious Objection to military service. His case may have been heard in the Sutton or Epsom Tribunals, but regardless, his application seems to have been totally rejected, as he was arrested as an absentee from the army in May 1916. His arrest as an absentee shows that he would not give any measure of control over his life up to the military and instead of reporting to barracks obediently, he forced the hand of the civil authorities, making them arrest him and transfer him under guard to army control. It was not long before he was again testing the limits of army authority, defying orders and facing a court martial on the 23rd of May. This led to the first of several short prison sentences, where each time Thomas would serve out his time and then, on release, become eligible for military service, called back to the army and re-sentenced for the same "crime" of obeying his conscience. This cycle was broken when Thomas was processed through Wormwood Scrubs for a Central Tribunal hearing in late 1916, which passed him for the Home Office Scheme, allowing him to leave prison into the confines of Home Office work camps. Thomas was moved to the Warwick camp, where he would, in exchange for a promise of good behaviour, be employed in road building and agricultural work, and allowed to mix with other COs. Before the end of the war he would be moved around several other camps before his move to Dartmoor Settlement in 1917, where he would remain for the rest of the war. COs like Thomas who took up the Home Office Scheme were demobilised long after the war had ended, and it is likely that it was late 1919 before he returned home to Cheam.
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