Call for convictions to be quashed
Campaigners are calling for a review into the case of Alice Wheeldon
One hundred years after the conviction of a leading woman figure in the anti-war movement campaigners are calling for a review of her case by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Alice Wheeldon was one of the early twentieth century’s most radical anti-war campaigners and the referral to the Court of Appeal hopes to highlight her case and restore her reputation.
On 10 March 1917 Alice Wheeldon, her daughter Winnie and her son-in-law Alf Mason were convicted of conspiracy to murder the then prime minister, David Lloyd George. Some of the evidence given in the case against them, it is alleged, may have been fabricated in an attempt to damage the anti-war movement.
Alice Wheeldon supported the No-Conscription Fellowship and, alongside many Quakers, helped conscientious objectors avoid conscription in the first world war.
In December 1916 a man calliing himself ‘Alex Gordon’, arrived at the Wheeldon home in Derby claiming to be a conscientious objector on the run. He was a spy from MI5.
‘Alex Gordon’ would go on to manufacture evidence leading to the imprisonment of the Wheeldon family.
Chloë and Deirdre Mason, great-granddaughters of Alice Wheeldon, traveled from Australia for a vigil on 10 March to mark the centenary of the convictions. They stood outside the Royal Courts of Justice with others representing the full spectrum of the UK peace movement, as well as some of their Australian supporters.
