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 |
| HORACE G ESSAM 1887 - 1962 |
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| While the experiences of many Conscientious Objectors are well known, due to the loss of many records and the difficulty of gathering information during the war, other stories are more difficult to piece together. Sometimes, this can be due to the choices COs themselves made about how they would interact with military authorities. Horace Essam has such a story. He was an Absolutist, CO, one who refused to make any compromise with the military, or aid the war effort in any capacity. He was arrested as an absentee from the army in May 1916, and was quickly sent to the Kingston barracks where, defying orders, he was court martialled and transferred to Shoreham. From there, there are no other records of his experiences as a CO. Part of this is due to Horace's decision to give no concession to the military whatsoever. When he arrived at the Kingston Barracks, he would have been expected to give his personal details to army registration, but he both refused to sign and to give any particulars at all. While this decision shows a resolve to offer complete resistance to the military, it makes further details of his experiences as a CO hard to track. It may be that Horace refused at all times to give any information, be it to prisons, Tribunals or the military. In doing this, he made a stand against participating in even the slightest sense in the military machine, a hard-line "Absolutist" stance. We know that Horace survived the war, and does not appear to have given up his CO stance during it. He died in 1962.
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