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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
SYDNEY FRED FOWLER 1887  

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Sydney Fowler was one of the first Conscientious Objectors to be conscripted under the Military Service Act 1916. Single, 29 and working as a shift engineer, Sydney was in the first "group" of men called up as conscripts in early 1916. His Tribunal hearing would have taken place in Kingston, most likely in March 1916, and it appears he made his case as a Conscientious Objector on agnostic, ethical grounds, that it was wrong to kill, simply and totally, a stance that required no specific religious or political framework. His Tribunal appearance was not successful, and though Sydney may have appealed against the decision handed to him, by the 20th of May he had been transferred to the army at the Kingston Barracks. There, he was supposed to willingly take up the rank of private in the Non-Combatant Corps, a unit set up specifically for Conscientious Objectors. Sydney refused to, and was determined to play no part in the military machine - non-combatant or otherwise.

In these early months of the Military Service Act, Conscientious Objectors and Military alike had no understanding of how the system was supposed to work. Sydney was transferred time and time again between different units of the NCC, each time refusing to obey orders. Finally in July 1917, at Newhaven Barracks, Sydney faced a court martial and was sentenced to 6 months in prison with hard labour, served in Maidstone Prison. By December this sentence had expired, and Sydney was released, only to find himself again under the control of the army. This cycle would repeat itself several times, with Sydney serving sentences in Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth and Lewes prisons. By 1917 constant imprisonment was taking it's toll on his health, and questions were asked in Parliament about his treatment. Despite his worsening health, it took another year for his release to be secured, and Sydney was finally discharged from the army and released from prison in January 1919, on the grounds of permanently damaged health.

 

 

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CO DATA

Born: 1887
Died:
Address: 27 Gibbon Road, Kingston, London
Tribunal:
Prison: xxx
HO Scheme:
CO Work:
Occupation: Shift Engineer

Motivation: Agnostic
[2]
ABSOLUTIST

 


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