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 |
| CYRIL GEORGE WRIGHT 1897 - |
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| Cyril Wright was one of very few resisting Absolutist Conscientious Objectors sent over to France in one of the Army's sporadic attempts to break the spirit of COs in their custody. While the first, and most famous group of what would become known as "the Frenchmen" were transported under guard to Boulogne in 1916, Cyril was one of a smaller group sent over a year later in March 1917. France was merely the end-point of 12 months of attempts to force Cyril to abandon his conscientious objection to military service. After Tribunals, call-up and court martial, he was imprisoned for six months hard labour for refusing to follow orders in June 1916, and, after rejecting the Home Office Scheme was sent to join the Non-Combatant Corps in Dublin. While again refusing all orders there his unit, along with several other Absolutist Objectors also refusing to become willing parts in the military machine, was sent to France. After the failure of the military to coerce COs into following orders through the threat and reality of transportation to France in 1916, Army Order X had been passed transferring the responsibility for COs out of the hands of active military units, and into civilian control. Word that the army was again attempting to subvert the legal process soon got out, and the CO movement, led by the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF) mobilised to exert political pressure on both Army and Civil Government to return these new "Frenchmen" home. By 1917 the NCF was well practiced at getting this information to the right sources and, after questions were raised in Parliament, Cyril and the other still-resisting COs were returned to Britain. But this was not, sadly, the end of the struggle. Almost immediately after his return to Dublin, Cyril was again sentenced to prison, followed by a third sentence in October and a fourth and final one in August 1918. He was finally released under the "two year rule" in April 1919, when large numbers of COs who had served more than two years total undergoing sentences of hard labour were discharged.
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