On Friday 4th of February 1916, around 250 theological students and ministers from around Wales stood on the parade ground at Rhyl and voluntarily signed up for the army. They were, as commentators of the time put it “answering the nations call”, but many of them were, or became, conscientious objectors.

Daniel Gwyn Williams from Swansea was one of these men who joined what was known as the Welsh Ministers Company of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Their recruitment was voluntary, but at least partly to secure a non-combatant, and thus morally acceptable, place in the Army before Conscription threw them into opposition to forced service in a combatant battalion. At the Rhyl parade ground gathering, the men of the Welsh Ministers Company heard from the Reverend John Williams, one of the men responsible for assembling them together, that as “members of the RAMC they would not only witness to great suffering, but would be able to render aid to the sufferers... they would be in a position to soothe the pain and ease the affliction of many, and in so doing follow the footsteps of the great Master”.

The men of the Welsh Ministers Company were motivated by their Christian belief that killing was wrong, and their non-combatant medical work provided life-saving aid to thousands of wounded around the many fronts of the war. They themselves could not take life, but non-combatant service was morally acceptable. This, however, does not necessarily mean they were Conscientious Objectors - many of them would be forced to prove their objection two years after signing up.

For Daniel Gwyn Williams, this test came while he was working with the RAMC in Egypt. He had most likely been with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force for a year, providing invaluable medical support on an under-equipped front in harsh conditions. In May 1918 however, with the British manpower crisis in full swing, Daniel and several other RAMC men were told they would be forcibly drafted into a combatant regiment, where they would have to take up arms and kill, in direct breach of their non-combatant status as RAMC men, and their own personal morality. Daniel refused to take up a weapon, and on the 29th of May 1918 faced a court martial. Found guilty of both disobeying a direct order and a refusal to accept his transfer into a combatant regiment, Daniel was sentenced to one years hard labour - to be served in the dreaded Gabbari military prison.

Daniel’s sentence was not confirmed. The Army, encountering such resistance among all of it’s medical support, could not imprison them all without stripping field hospitals and ambulances of their trained staff. Around 100 RAMC men - all of whom were volunteers - received this treatment, showing that there was no promise that could not be broken by the Army, and that Conscientious Objection does not begin and end with conscription.