Meeting for Sufferings: Recognition for combatants
Mid-Wales Area Meeting sent a minute to Meeting for Sufferings regarding recognition of Quaker combatants who were killed during world war one
The unrecognised sacrifice made by many Quakers during world war one, whether as combatants or conscientious objectors (COs), was the subject of a minute from Mid-Wales Area Meeting heard by Meeting for Sufferings on 7 July at Friends House in London.
Speaking to the minute a Friend from Wales drew attention to ‘the brief reference made to those killed and wounded in the first world war’. He added that: ‘As we draw to the point of commemorating the end of that hideous event… we need to recover our forgotten war dead.’
Sufferings was reminded that ‘the Friends’ Ambulance Unit did not find immediate favour with Meeting for Sufferings’. The Friend said: ‘We need to rebalance the picture that we draw of ourselves.’
Behind this were ‘truth and integrity’. A book of remembrance would, the Friend suggested, help to recognise that ‘their sacrifice has meaning for us today… It is, Friends, about remembering and recovery… Friends came to the truth as they saw it …in love.’
‘We should not elevate those who died in the way our wider society does,’ another Friend said.‘We should not see a particular section but the whole devastation and its effects.’
Records should be balanced, the Friend continued, ‘but we should not get too close to sentimentalising with regard to those who died’.
A Friend stressed ‘full remembrance’ of all those involved in the conflict, adding: ‘Formal recognition raises a lot of uncertainties.’ Some of these concern the status of a conscript killed while undergoing training.
Another Friend said: ‘My concern is that the minute focuses on those who gave their lives during the war.’ Others survived, but still made sacrifices. For instance: ‘One conscientious objector was sent to France to be shot. After reprieve he was sent to prison.’ It was important, the Friend said, ‘to record all contributions and sacrifices’.
Another Friend said they had realised ‘how little thought I had given to this… even when we commemorate COs. But why had I not considered they were not the only Quakers in world war one?’
Another Quaker said: ‘We should refer to the Memorial [the Quaker Service Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum].’ The Friend added: ‘Work needs to be coordinated if we take this further. We need to work together.’
A Friend considered that: ‘It might be appropriate for Meeting for Sufferings to return to this issue and there might be further discussion on it.’ It was also hoped ‘that Area Meetings might consider this in the future’.
Comments
Historians now better understand how varied was the reaction of Quakers to the First World War. Some Quakers fought, others successfully applied for the legal exemption from military conscription won for them by the Quaker MP T.Edmund Harvey, while absolutists like Stephen Hobhouse refused to apply for that exemption and suffered the consequences.
By frankem51 on 19th July 2018 - 15:38
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