THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX
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THE MEN WHO SAID NO | ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION | CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION | PRISONS | SENTENCED TO DEATH | TRIBUNALS | WIDER CONTEXT | INDEX |
| DOUGLAS HASLER THORN 1895 - |
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| Douglas Thorn was one of many Conscientious Objectors who volunteered as non-combatants well before Conscription was introduced. Many of these men went into medical units or labour battalions and were never put in a position where they would be forced to disobey an order. Sadly for Douglas, he was - and his refusal marks him as a volunteer CO. Douglas volunteered at the age of 20 for the Royal Army Medical Corps, a medical support unit with a guarantee of non-combatant status for private soldiers. From the Chelsea Barracks where he volunteered, Douglas was sent out to the Mesopotamian front where he worked providing medical support for wounded soldiers until 1918. In July 1918 however, Douglas was caught up in the British Army's desperate attempt to shore up its most recent manpower shortage. Douglas and many other volunteer RAMC men were ordered into combatant units and ordered to take up weapons. Douglas refused and, as a result, was sentenced to five years penal servitude - in the dreaded Gabbari military prison. He was discharged after the Armistice, but not released from the army. Instead taking up another non-combatant role as an Education instructor with the London Regiment, Douglas remained with the army until he contracted malaria in 1919. Invalided home in January 1920, he was finally released and demobilised in March, having spent nearly 5 years in the army while maintaining his firm commitment to refuse to take life.
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