Paul Gillan was one of a minority among Conscientious Objectors, being opposed to war on religious and political grounds in addition to national grounds. Paul was an Irish Catholic and Sinn Feiner, and therefore not only refused morally to fight and kill but also to becoming involved in Britain’s war due to the continuing Imperial occupation of Ireland. Though working in London in 1916, his religious conviction was strong enough that, prior to his father’s death, he had been studying to take up holy orders.

Paul initially applied to Willesden Tribunal on Domestic grounds, arguing that as the sole support of his widowed mother, he should be exempt from military service, presenting in his support assertions made in Parliament that the Act would not conscript widow’s sons. Despite his argument, his application for exemption was refused and, on the 28th of August 1916, he was arrested and handed over to the military.

Stubbornly and resolutely refusing to obey military orders or be cowed by military authority, Paul was soon up before a court martial at Catterick barracks and sentenced to two years hard labour. By September of 1917, Paul had been transferred to Wormwood Scrubs where his case as a CO was brought before the Central Tribunal which, agreeing that he was a genuine, or “Class A” CO, offered him a place on the Home Office Scheme (HoS).

Paul accepted the compromise of the scheme and was transferred to Warwick work centre where the hard conditions and privations of the HoS took their toll, leaving him so weak he had to continue his work sewing mailbags from his bed. After a temporary recovery, Paul worked at Warwick until March 1917, when he was transferred to the larger Dartmoor Work Centre.

In June 1917, Paul fell ill and found it difficult to work. Arriving to his working party fifteen minutes late, he was docked two weeks pay, a sentence he found outrageous and draconian, as a letter he wrote to the Princetown authorities makes very clear:

“What is the charge? That I, Paul Leo Gillan, in my 42nd year, a CO and SF, appeared at the slave market, known as Dartmoor Gaol Rope and Twine shed, fifteen minutes late. Therefore, I am crimed, and ordered to forfeit two weeks pay. I am paid at the rate of 8d per day of ten working hours, or three farthings per hour, pro rata I ought to be debited with three-sixteenths of a penny.

Your Committee delights in preaching vengeance, and has decided to steal two weeks’ pay. Accordingly I withdraw two week’s labour.”

Paul’s work strike was short lived and he was quickly removed from the scheme and returned to direct military control - only to be sent soon after to prison for disobeying orders. In Plymouth prison he had no access to mass and after protests that he could not practice his faith, he was sent to Winchester prison in February 1918.

Soon after his arrival at Winchester, he had become severely ill. An underlying heart condition, well known to the authorities caused a rapid and terminal decline. On the same day a letter was sent to his mother informing her of his serious illness and inviting her to come to visit him, the 16th of March, he died.

As a CO in severe ill-health, he was eligible for release from prison into exceptional employment and with a severe heart condition may well have been allowed to leave the system altogether. Instead, he was callously kept in the prison system, most likely as an act of vindictiveness from the Warwick Work Centre authorities in response to his work strike of June 1917.

The final part of his letter announcing he was going on work strike stands as a testament to the courage and determination of Paul to stay a Conscientious Objector despite any pressure or condition:

“I have honestly demonstrated my determination to oppose military discipline, which I regard as refined ruffianism. To submit to military discipline means to me the negation of all that is noble, all that is loving, all that is pure and kind, that negation of all that is divine, in short, the negation of all that constitutes a man. I proudly refuse to place my soul in the keeping of any military caste.”