Thomas Paul was a Christadelphian Conscientious Objector who accepted Non-Combatant Military Service from 1916 to 1919. Living and working in Brora when Conscripted in 1916, he would have been one of the first Conscientious Objectors in the area, and his Tribunal hearing would have been in early March of 1916.

Thomas argued his case for exemption from military service on the grounds of his Christian faith. As a Christadelphian, Thomas most likely went into his Tribunal with official documentation issued by his Church to back up his claim. Many Christadelphian Objectors appeared before their hearings with a signed “Christadelphian Certificate” evidencing their long-standing membership of the sect, and often submitted a lengthy document outlining the beliefs and attitudes towards warfare of the Christadelphian faith, issued country-wide by the Christadelphian publishing house in London.

The document states that Christadelphians were to live in accordance of all civil laws, except those that went against the laws of their faith. Active military service in a combatant role would be impossible for a Christadelphian like Thomas to accept, but non-combatant service, or work in a war-related industry, was morally acceptable. While many other Conscientious Objectors would find this position difficult to maintain, more than one thousand Christadelphians around the country made the same stance, refusing to contravene God’s law that prohibited killing, but obedient to the law of the state - Conscription.

In accordance with this moral stance, Thomas accepted a posting to the Non-Combatant Corps, and by April 1916, he was a soldier. Though the NCC was set up for Conscientious Objectors so that they could provide useful labour and logistics support to the Army, it was not an easy or unthinking choice to take it up. It meant obeying military commands, but also making sure you were not being commanded to act against your conscience. It was an extremely difficult balancing act, and both the wider army and the wider peace movement looked down on NCC men as neither one thing nor the other.

Thomas, however, accepted the role, and after only a month’s training, was sent to France to work behind the lines with the 1st Scottish Battalion of the NCC. He would work in France for more than three years, and would be in one of the last groups of soldiers to return to their lives before the war, with the final NCC demobilisation in September 1919.