Wilfred Milner was a clerk living and working in Cardiff when he was conscripted under the Military Service Act 1916. He went before the Cardiff Tribunal in August 1916, where he argued his case for exemption as a religious Conscientious Objector.

Wilfred may have found this experience difficult. Though religious faith and conscience are both personal, individual concepts, as a member of the Church of England, Wilfred was at least nominally supposed to accord to it’s beliefs. With the Archbishop of Canterbury a strong proponent of the war as “the religion of peace cannot hold it’s ground unless it is prepared, when occasion arises, to transform itself into the religion of strife”, Church of England COs often found their conscientious stand undermined by religious authority.

However difficult Wilfred’s Tribunal hearing was, it was unsuccessful. Denied the exemption status he was looking for, he decided to adopt absolute passive disobedience, refusing to obey any military orders, including reporting to barracks. This led inevitably to his arrest and then court martial, where, on the 13th of July 1916, he was sentenced for four months hard labour in Cardiff gaol.

This was the first of Wilfred’s many prison sentences for his refusal to kill in war. After a short sentence in Cardiff, he was released a free man - making him eligible once more for Conscription, inevitably leading to another arrest, court martial and prison sentence. This cruel and pointless cycle would repeat until the end of the war, sending Wilfred to Cardiff, Wormwood Scrubs, Liverpool and Wakefield Prisons.

By January 1919 he has served four sentences totalling more than two years. This made him a “two-year man”, and brought him into the Government’s plan to release Conscientious Objectors who had served several sentences. Wilfred would most likely have been released shortly after January, as new laws facilitated the release and eventual demobilisation of “two year men”.