Relatives remember COs

Conscientious Objectors of the first world war were remembered at a ceremony in Tavistock Square

Conscientious Objectors (COs) of the first world war were remembered at a moving ceremony in Tavistock Square on 15 May, International Conscientious Objectors Day.  Several hundred people gathered for a ceremony that included speeches, songs performed by the choir of a London school, the ‘naming of first world war conscientious objectors’ by relatives and the laying of flowers in honour of COs past and present.

Sam Walton, of Quaker Peace & Social Witness, said that while we should remember and learn from the stance taken by COs in the past the subject remains of great importance today. Mary Dobbin, a peace activist from Bristol, talked about her grandfather Herbert Dobbing, who was a CO in the first world war and had served with the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU).

Christine Schweitzer, of War Resisters’ International and an activist in the German peace movement, revealed how few COs there were in Germany in the first world war. She said that most were sent to asylums because they were regarded as ‘crazy’ not to want to fight for their country.

John Maxton, whose father and uncle were COs in the first world war, explained that they had objected, as socialists, on political grounds. He described how difficult it was for some COs and related a story he had been told of how his father’s dog was stoned to death by neighbours in his Glasgow community.

Many people came to the ceremony to remember relatives who had been COs in the first world war. After a song and speeches, they stood in line, holding a white flower, and walked up to the microphone. Each named their relative and said a few words about them. A large number of Quakers attended the ceremony as well as leading figures in the peace movement.

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