We know little about Joseph Mountfield or his time as a conscientious objector. Joseph was 26 years old, a grocer and member of the Manchester No Conscription Fellowship when he failed to present himself to be processed into the army. He was quickly rounded up and arrested in early November 1916. The Military Service Tribunal in Manchester offered him Exemption from Combatant Service only and he was promptly sent to join the Non-Combatant Corps in Aldershot. There he refused to co-operate, was court martialed and sentenced to 1 year hard labour in Wormwood Scrubs. He appealed against the judgement of the Manchester tribunal and was reclassified by The Central Tribunal as ‘genuine this gave him the option of performing ‘work of national importance’ at the Home Office work camps.
During the following 22 months he moved between a number of work camps and shortly before the end of the war was released due to ill health.
He died on Armistice Day 1918.

Joseph left a trace of his passing through the system of work camps in the autograph book of a fellow CO.

Page from Gilford Wooland autograph book