The Winchester Whisperer. Photo: © 2014 The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain.
The Winchester Whisperer
A newsletter written by conscientious objectors in Winchester Prison has been featured in a new BBC world war one project
A fragile historical document written on toilet paper and housed in the library of Friends House was featured this week in a new BBC world war one project. The Winchester Whisperer was a newsletter written by conscientious objectors in Winchester Prison.
The story behind the secret newsletter is told as part of a season of BBC programmes that looks at the impact of world war one on life in the UK.
The Winchester Whisperer was written on sheets of toilet paper and handed around the prison by conscientious objectors. It contained articles, sketches and poetry submitted by inmates to the editor.
Inmates used ink from their regular allocation that they had saved in thimbles sealed within blocks of wax. The end of a needle was used to apply ink to the sheets. These were then bound together with the canvas from mailbags.
Prison warders were unable to locate any copies of The Winchester Whisperer. The only surviving edition is housed in the library at Friends House in London. David Blake, head of library and archives at Friends House, said: ‘It’s an amazing document – the effort that has gone into it, the skill that is there. The Winchester Whisperer gives us a remarkable insight into the lives of conscientious objectors in prison during world war one. The document came to us from the widow of John William Graham, a prominent Quaker who wrote one of the standard books Conscription and conscience: a history 1916-1919.’
Due to its fragility the copy is rarely brought out but researchers from BBC South were allowed to see the manuscript for the making of World War One At Home, a series of 1,400 stories gathered from around the UK broadcast on regional TV and local radio from 24 to 28 February. Details of the programmes are available on the BBC website. The Winchester Whisperer story will feature on BBC Radio Solent and on BBC South Today on Thursday 27 February.
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