Born in Tynemouth in 1897, Michael was the youngest of three children of a coal miner, also called Michael Dodds Henzell. His home address was 29 Dene Row, Bates Cottages, Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. When the Military Service Act was passed in 1916 he was studying to be a teacher at Borough Road College, Isleworth, so having applied for exemption he attended a tribunal in Middlesex. At the tribunal he stated that his religion was Primitive Methodist.

He appeared before the Heston and Isleworth tribunal in February 1916, having applied for exemption on grounds of conscience. The form sent to the tribunal by the military representative, Lieutenant Chapman, made no reference to conscience, and stated that the Lieutenant objected to the application and contended that ‘it is no longer necessary in the national interests that this man should continue in civil employment’. The tribunal accordingly ruled “that the man does not hold a bona fide conscientious objection to the undertaking of combatant service”.

The Middlesex Chronicle, 18 March 1916 reported that:
“Chief interest centred in the claims of conscientious objectors, of whom there were several – in one or two cases with a small following – and these were subjected to much questioning by the members, all of whom were present…Another student of 19 pleaded that he could not inflict or be a participator in inflicting death, and that he believed in the brotherhood of man. He belonged to the Plymouth Methodists, but did not know whether this was part of their belief: it was his own belief. – Mr Heldmann told the applicant that he ought to know the world was governed by force, and that it was his duty to take his share in the war.

Mr Lobjoit recalled the interrogation of Pilate to Christ at the Trial. ‘Art thou a King?’ and Christ’s reply, ‘My kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews,’ and asked the applicant what he supposed Christ meant by ‘fighting’?
- Applicant: I cannot think he meant physical force, but fighting for Christ in a moral sense.
- Mr L: Doesn’t it mean that is such a situation as we are He would sanction force?
- Applicant: I don’t think He would.
- Refused.”

With his application for exemption turned down, Michael decided to appeal against the decision to the Middlesex Tribunal, which heard his case on the 20th of March 1916. In his appeal Michael stated: I cannot inflict death nor be a participator in helping to inflict death on my fellow men, because I hold that human life is so sacred that the only one who has a right to say or decree when it shall cease, is He who gave it. I believe in the Brotherhood of Man. I cannot take a military oath, because I believe that by doing so I would be handing over my conscience to others….. I am a conscientious objector and therefore entitled to exemption under the Military Service Act; even though the above beliefs may not be part of the creed of my denomination, I hold that the questions asked me by the Local Tribunal, which were upon the scriptures, were irrelevant to the matter in question, which is ‘conscience’
The Appeal Tribunal ruled that a conscientious objection had been established, and exemption from combatant service was given. On 2 April 1916 Michael began six weeks of training at Jordans, the Friends training camp in Berkshire, and on 25 June he was in the Motor School at the Reserve camp. On 14 July he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit in Dunkirk, and he worked as a service orderly with one of the four Friends’ Ambulance Trains for the duration of the war. He left the FAU on 24 January 1919.
Ambulance Train 17, on which Michael was an orderly, produced its own magazine from time to time during the war. Michael was a regular contributor to this, usually in verse which has a dark and comic edge. Members of the FAU worked to save lives, whether soldier or civilian and their medical work was valuable in the struggle against the appalling humanitarian cost of the war.
Michael worked with the FAU until 1919, returning finally to Northumberland where he finished his training and worked as a teacher. He died in 1981.

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