When conscription was introduced in 1916, Harold Hurst was studying to become a teacher. Heavily involved in both his local Wesleyan church, the Manchester branch of the No-Conscription Fellowship and the National Union of Teachers, he would have been surrounded by a variety of people with strong anti-war beliefs. Given his own personal convictions and this context, it is unsurprising that he applied for absolute exemption from conscription on Conscientious grounds in early 1916.

The Tribunal process could be complicated for men like Harold who were in positions considered of National Importance. Applying both on the grounds of his religious Conscientious Objection to military service and as a student teacher, his first Tribunal refused him any exemption, only for the Cheshire Appeal Tribunal to grant him 5 months exemption to finish his studies and qualify as a teacher. This reveals some of the inconsistency and poor decision making that characterised many military service Tribunals. An applicant, like Harold, could be exempted temporarily on the grounds that they were in training for a position that would subsequently grant exemption as a protected, or reserved, occupation. In granting Harold temporary exemption to finish his studies, the Cheshire Appeal Tribunal acknowledged that he was training for a role that would see him exempted, but, after his qualification as a teacher his exemption was not renewed! Consequently, instead of receiving the absolute exemption he was entitled to both as a CO and as a teacher, Harold was arrested, tried at a magistrates court and handed over to the army.

For Harold, like many thousands of other Absolutist Conscientious Objectors, the army was merely a stop on the road towards prison. Disobeying orders while at the Crosby depot, on the 6th of October 1916 Harold was sentenced by Court Martial to two years Hard Labour, to be spent in Wormwood Scrubs. From mid 1916 onwards with the establishment of the Home Office Scheme (HoS), nearly all COs in England were channelled through Wormwood Scrubs to be heard by the Central Tribunal. This hearing would decide whether or not they would be offered the compromise represented by the HoS.

Harold was judged a “class A” conscientious objector and offered a place on the HoS. He would have to trade greater freedom in a work camp, rather than a prison, environment in exchange for agreeing to abide by certain rules of behaviour and take up work. These conditions were unacceptable to Harold and he rejected the scheme - as he would do several more times between November 1916 and January 1918. His reasons for rejecting the scheme are not clear. It could be that he objected to the rules COs who took the scheme would have to agree to - restriction on producing anti-war propaganda, limited rules of movement, action and behaviour that were designed to give an illusion of freedom to what was essentially an open-air prison. While many COs who rejected the scheme took this view, others rejected it due to the work they would have to undertake on the scheme. While usually pointless and punishing, the scheme was, at least theoretically, designed to move COs to “useful” work - thus involving Objectors with the wartime economy and, potentially, freeing up other men to fight and kill. To many Absolutists, this was an impossible compromise.

After rejecting the Scheme, Harold served his first sentence in Wormwood Scrubs and was released after several months, only to again become eligible for conscription and sent back to the Crosby depot. His second court martial would have been a familiar experience and it led to a familiar outcome - another two year sentence, this time in Walton prison. He spent a year in the confines of Walton Prison, until he became seriously ill in late 1917 or early 1918.

His illness grew worse, and in the hope of obtaining better conditions in order to recover, he accepted the Home Office Scheme. It must have been an exceptionally difficult decision. Harold was transferred to Wakefield Prison Work Centre, but was so severely ill that he spent five months in the prison hospital. Attempts were made to secure his discharge from the army due to illness but they were refused. By January 1919 it seemed he had made a recovery and he was moved from Wakefield to an “Exceptional Employment Scheme” - a belated realisation that the majority of COs on the scheme could be more usefully put to work outside its confines. The exceptional employment scheme put him back in the role that should have secured his exemption and he was released to a teaching post at Stalybridge.

This proved to be little more than a stay of sentence for Harold. Though COs released on exceptional employment often found their conditions improving, after only a short time he collapsed at work and was taken ill with pneumonia. Four days later, on the 22nd of February 1919, he was dead. Though he lost his life to one of the waves of illness and disease that followed in the wake of the First World War, his death can be attributed to the savage and punishing conditions he endured in his prison sentences. When he fell ill in Walton prison, he never truly recovered as the cold, damp conditions of the prison and the inadequate food and exercise of the regime took their toll on his health. Ultimately, his treatment as a CO would take his life and make him as much of a victim of the callous brutality of the First World War as any soldier.