Frank Thomas Sunderland lived in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. He worked as an insurance agent before the outbreak of war and held strong religious and political views on social issues, economics and war. He was married with three children when he was called up under the Military Service Act in mid 1916.

His initial application to the Hitchin Rural District Tribunal was unsuccessful and instead of the Absolute Exemption he was entitled to as a Conscientious Objector, he was given exemption from Combatant Service only. This meant that he would have to report to the local Army barracks as a soldier, albeit to the Non-Combatant Corps, an army unit created for carrying supplies, building roads and similar non-fighting tasks.

For Frank, this was totally unacceptable. As an Absolutist Conscientious Objector he believed that a Non-Combatant role in the Army meant that he was part of a wider military machine with a single goal - murder. Non-Combatant roles freed other soldiers to fight and kill, and Frank rejected the decision on these grounds.

Refusing even to report to the barracks he was arrested as an absentee on the Fourth of November 1916 and handed over to the Military Authorities. There, he refused to become part of the military machine, either in putting on a uniform, performing drill or disobeying other orders and was charged before a Court Martial resulting in a 6 month prison sentence.

He began his sentence in Wormwood Scrubs in later November and was called before the Central Tribunal there a month later. He was offered a place on the Home Office Scheme, but, in accordance with his Absolutist views, he rejected the scheme and remained in prison. After his sentence had finished, he was released from prison and returned to the army. Disobeying orders a second time, he would soon find himself back in Wormwood Scrubs on a new, 1 year sentence. This cycle was a common experience for Conscientious Objectors in the First World War and exhibits the futility of government punishments for men whose only crime was rejecting the idea that war was necessary.

Frank would go through this cycle once more before being released after three sentences and more than two years total in prison in April 1919. During his time in prison, Frank wrote many letters to his wife, Lucy. These letters give a fascinating look into the mind of a man determined to stand up for what he believed in.

His words are still relevant nearly 100 years later, and carry an important message of peace for the world today: “Peace and love alone are enduring and will ultimately conquer for they are forces of construction and although today, in the mad turmoil of force, peace and love seem out of place they are quietly working and will emerge stronger than ever"