This is International Conscientious Objectors' Day, when the peace movement internationally celebrates those individuals, past and present and in every country, who have refused military conscription.
Most conchies, of course, were and are ordinary people, their names often unknown and rarely remembered outside their own circles. But in the UK during the 20th century a number of war refusers became famous in other fields. Here are a few of them ...
The Joy of Sex, an illustrated manual first published in 1972, was one of the most famous and bestselling books of its decade - as well as one of the most mocked and parodied. Its author was a British scientist and physician, Alex Comfort. The book's original subtitle was "A Cordon Bleu Guide to Lovemaking," but this was changed to "Gourmet Guide" after the owners of the Cordon Bleu brand complained. It was set out like a cookbook, with chapters including "Main Courses" and "Sauces and Pickles."
Dr. Comfort, an anarchist, carried an unusual wound for a pacifist: as a schoolboy he blew off most off his left hand while experimenting with gunpowder. It seems unlikely therefore that the armed forces would have wanted him even if he hadn't been a C.O., but nonetheless his peace campaigning was a lifelong commitment. His son remembers him making a radio transmitter - complete with Weetabix for sound insulation - to broadcast anti-nuclear propaganda to factory workers who were building Blue Streak missiles.
The man who first made DIY a British obsession, with his 1950s TV series Barry Bucknell's Do It Yourself, was also a conscientious objector during world war two (he served instead as a firefighter in London during the Blitz, so I doubt anyone ever questioned his courage.) His DIY shows were broadcast live, and when things went wrong he'd famously tell viewers "Well, that's not the way to do it."
Sidney Carter, who wrote the song Lord of the Dance, refused military service and instead was posted as an ambulance driver to Palestine, Egypt and Greece. David Hockney, the painter, was a C.O. and the son of a C.O., and did his National Service as a hospital orderly. The economist John Maynard Keynes was an objector of a precise kind: he wasn't a pacifist, he didn't object to fighting or killing, but as a liberal he did object to being made to fight - it was conscription that he objected to. He was refused C.O. status on these grounds, but his work at the Treasury exempted him from military service anyway.
Paul Eddington, star of TV comedies The Good Life and Yes, Minister, refused to fight because he was a Quaker. The tribunal hearing his case allowed him to avoid military service as long as he continued to act in shows put on by ENSA to entertain troops. The surrealist artist and art historian Sir Roland Penrose was also a Quaker and a C.O., though he did agree to write The Home Guard Manual of Camouflage.
The composer Malcolm Arnold was a C.O., until he changed his mind and joined the army, where he then changed his mind again and shot himself in the foot to get sent home. He was knighted in 1993, so presumably it wasn't held against him.
The same goes for this guy, who I think might be my favourite. Arnold Machin's health was poor enough that he would have failed the conscription medical test anyway, but he felt that agreeing to attend the examination, knowing it would exclude him from military service, would have been cowardly, since this was not an option available to other, fitter objectors. His refusal to attend his army medical cost him nine months imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs. When he did finally undergo the medical test, he was, indeed, exempted service on health grounds.
A man of humble origins in the Potteries, Machin ended up with an OBE, being the artist who designed the image of Queen Elizabeth II which appeared on all UK coins from decimalisation until 1984. He was also responsible for the queen's head on postage stamps, which is sometimes described as the most reproduced work of art on Earth, having appeared on hundreds of billions of envelopes. Funny old world.
*
Sources:
www.ppu.org.uk/international-conscientious-objectors-day-may-15th
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/principles-held-high
www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/6633046.joy-sex-father-taught-nothing-facts-life
www.nytimes.com/2000/03/29/us/alex-comfort-80-dies-a-multifaceted-man-best-known-for-writing-the-joy-of-sex.html
www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/28/stop-calling-me-doctor-sex-comfort
www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/barry-bucknell-was-first-man-to-swear-on-tv-new-book-claims
www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/sept06/Arnold_Obituary.htm
www.bl.uk/people/david-hockney
www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/online-resources/online-exhibitions/first-world-war-keynes-conscientious-objection
www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-actor-paul-eddingtons-beliefs-cast-him-as-a-conscientious-objector
www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-roland-penrose-1755
www.machin-arts-foundation.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&catid=8&Itemid=103
www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/people/arnold-machin/
Rebel Britannia
How did the prison get the name Wormwood Scrubs? It sounds cleaner than US prisons, yet scarier somehow.