Alfred Huitt was one of four brothers, three of whom became COs. Alfred, Thomas and George were all religious COs who believed very strongly that their Christian principles meant that they could play no part in the war. The fourth brother, Henry, volunteered for the army in 1915 but it is likely that he also shared his brothers’ religious principles as he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a non-combatant, working to save lives rather than destroy them, on the Western front. Alfred, born in Deptford in 1851, was the oldest brother and worked as a carpenter before facing conscription in 1916.

As a single man in his 30’s, Alfred was in one of the earliest groups of men called up under the Military Service Act 1916 which forced all men aged between 18 and 41 into the army unless they gained exemption from military service. Alfred applied for exemption from the Greenwich Tribunal in early 1916. We do not know the result of his application, but we know that he could not have received the absolute exemption he was entitled to, as by January 1917 he had been arrested as an absentee from the army. Many COs were classed as “absentees” as they refused to report to barracks as willing soldiers.

Once arrested Alfred was found guilty, fined and handed over to the army. He was sent to the Guildford Depot where it was expected that he would follow orders and agree to become a soldier. Instead, Alfred refused to obey and was duly punished by a Court Martial on the 29th of January 1917. He was sent to Wormwood Scrubs prison.

At Wormwood Scrubs he was sent before the Central Tribunal which would decide whether he could be called a “genuine CO”. After hearing his case on the 31st of March, it was decided that Alfred was genuine, but instead of being released - as an acknowledged genuine CO he was entitled to absolute exemption from the army, and to carry on his life - he was referred to the Brace Committee, and from there to the Home Office Scheme (HoS).

Alfred accepted the scheme, but it is not known where, or what work he agreed to do. Most COs who accepted the Home Office Scheme were sent to large work camps to do manual labour. Initially believed to be useful and productive work, it was often harsh and punitive. Alfred was a trained carpenter and could have done some useful work for the people of Britain by staying in his job. Instead, due to the pettiness of the Tribunals and desire of many to punish COs for having strong anti-war opinions, he was sent to work on something completely different and largely useless - rock breaking, ploughing fields by hand, or pulling carts. It is likely that he would have spent at least some time at Dartmoor work camp.

Whereever Alfred went, he would have faced pointless difficult work in poor conditions and with harsh restrictions on what he could and could not do and say as a CO. He would have been released at some point in 1919, finally allowed to carry on the life he had left upon his arrest two years before.

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