THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
|
| Back | Home |
THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX |
| JOHN TAYLOR ???? - 1918 |
|
||||||||
| Many of the Conscientious Objectors who died during the First World War were casualties of the waves of illness that swept Europe in 1918 and 1919. Others, like John Taylor, had sadder and in many ways more desperate stories. John was conscripted in 1916 and refused to cooperate with the military authorities trying to force him to fight and kill. He was passed Exempt from Combatant Service by his local Tribunal, but was nevertheless conscripted into a front-line fighting regiment, Refusing to obey orders, he was in prison by mid 1916. A year later, he was suffering through a long sentence at Wakefield while on the Home Office Scheme. The conditions and pressure led him to attempt suicide in November. His case, of a man so clearly suffering terribly, was brought up in the House of Commons, but the Government denied any responsibility, or any need for an investigation into his circumstances. Two months later, after being committed to the West Riding Asylum, he was dead - a victim of the crushing social and military pressures forced upon Conscientious Objectors.
|
|
||||||||
| EditRegion7 | EditRegion6 | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
