Protesting war: Rosemary Rich visits a rare conference

‘It was inspiring to hear about the wide-ranging research.’

Back in the summer, a conference was held at Northumbria University on the subject of ‘Protesting War in the Twentieth Century’. Three of the papers were given by Quakers and featured Quaker subjects.

The conference explored opposition to war in the broadest sense, on a local, national, and global scale, and was concerned with a range of conflicts. There were panels on the politics of protest, gender and protest, the visual culture of protest, conflicts over peace and empire, and more. 

The panel on ‘Religion and Objection’ featured two Quakers, Joanna Dales and Mark Stanley. Joanna gave a paper on John William Graham, the Quaker writer and activist, and the conscientious objectors of the first world war. Mark spoke on the patriotic pacifism of the Quaker MP T Edmund Harvey. Also on the panel was Sahra Mezhoud, presenting on the Fellowship of Reconciliation during the first world war. 

The final Quaker speaker was Graham Taylor, who gave a paper on the social reformers Alfred and Ada Salter. It looked at how the Salters’ strong pacifist beliefs led them down the road of ‘left-wing appeasement’ in interwar Britain. On the same panel as Graham was Hazel Kent, an academic from Bishop Grosseteste University, who presented her work on the life of Fenner Brockway, the British socialist politician and anti-war activist. There was some illuminating discussion about the relationship between the Salters and Brockway, and both papers highlighted the fraught debate over how to deal with the threat of Nazi Germany. 

It was inspiring to hear about the wide-ranging research that is being carried out on the history of pacifism and peace activism. It seems particularly crucial in our troubled times to have these alternative narratives. 

I gave a paper on pacifism and conscientious objection in children’s literature, in partnership with Julia Hope from Goldsmiths University (also my mother). We were inspired by our father and grandfather, a conscientious objector, and our desire for stories like his to be more widely known. Indeed, despite many children’s books portraying various aspects of war and conflict, little has been written about resistance to war. Our paper presented the books we had found that deal with pacifism and conscientious objection. We concluded that, although none of these texts put forward an overall anti-war message, often seeking to be ‘balanced’, they do provide alternative perspectives. They should be made readily available in schools and libraries. 

I have recently joined a team working to compile a database of conscientious objectors, with Ellis Brooks from Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), and Philip Austin and Barry Mills from the Northern Friends Peace Board. We are encouraging descendants to share details about their relatives. Visit https://bit.ly/costoriesww2 to contribute. My research on my grandfather highlighted the lack of data available on the subject – those who refused to fight have largely been omitted from the public narrative. A conference shedding further light on these overlooked experiences is much to be celebrated. 

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Rosemary, of Brighton University, works with the QPSW peace education team.

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