Gwilym Edward Thomas, aged 19 when conscripted in 1916, was one of three Aberystwyth College students who applied to their local Tribunal together for exemption as Conscientious Objectors. Gwilym was a Congregationalist and was training as a teacher when Conscripted, and took up an Absolutist stance on war-work. At his Tribunal hearing, he stated that he 'could not undertake any work which directly, or indirectly, promotes the shedding of blood.' He would not work with a non-combatant organisation such as the R.A.M.C. and the Y.M.C.A. When he said that he was willing to die for his conscience he was assured that he would not suffer the death penalty.

Perhaps this strident and clear explanation of his position impressed the Tribunal, but it was not enough to secure him the Absolute exemption that he was applying for. The Local Tribunal exempted Thomas from all Combatant service only, but he objected to having to join a non-combative organisation on the grounds that it would release men to join the army.  Appealing against this decision to the Cardiganshire County Appeal Tribunal seems to have been successful, and Gwilym was offered exemption provided that he took up Work of National Importance.

He accepted, and, without being forced into the Army or a related organisation, voluntarily took up farm work near Leominster under the auspices of the Pelham Committee for the Employment of Conscientious Objectors. From the 29th of May 1916 until the Armistice, he worked on a variety of agricultural tasks and, though in November 1917 he was forced to move from Leominster to Birmingham after a disagreement with his employer, it seems that his WNI was uneventful.

WNI was not a simple case of changing occupations. It meant being subject to the rules of the Pelham Committee and frequent interference by civil authorities. Most invasive of these rules was the unspoken law of the “principle of equal sacrifice”, where COs were expected to suffer as much as a soldier at the front. With lethal danger and randomly inflicted death rare on market gardening work, this usually took the form of petty and vindictive restrictions on the rights of COs taking up WNI - very reduced pay and work a long distance from home and family were common.