Features / First World War
Uncovering the hidden stories of World War One
A national festival exploring the hidden stories of the First World War is being held in Bristol.
Marking the 100-year anniversary of the release from prison of absolutist conscientious objectors – those who refused to assist the war in any way – Commemoration, Conflict & Conscience is a free public event taking place at M Shed and the SouthBank Club over the weekend of April 27 and 28.
The Bristol area had one of the greatest numbers and greatest density of conscientious objectors in the country, with nearly 580.
is needed now More than ever
The festival programme includes exhibitions, talks, performances, films, craft activities including print-making, a puppet show and walk, tours, workshops, music and song.
Lois Bibbings says the festival presents a rich and complex picture of the First World War
Organiser Lois Bibbings from the University of Bristol hopes to bring people from across the country together for the festival
Professor Bibbings is an expert on World War One conscientious objection to military service and collaborated with colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire and Bristol history group Remembering the Real WW1 to put the festival programme together.
She says: “This national festival presents a rich and complex picture of the First World War, by highlighting aspects which have been missed or barely touched upon by centenary activities to-date – including looking at internment, war resistance, mutinies, conscientious objection, miscarriages of justice, the British Caribbean experience of the war and its legacies, how the war shaped Gandhi’s rise to prominence in India and the path to independence.
“It also offers the opportunity to examine legacy and commemoration, to reflect on what has happened since in terms of the treatment of veterans and conscientious objectors, to focus on present day efforts at peacebuilding.”
The festival will bring together community groups, local historians, academics, campaigners, activists and performers from across the country and further afield to examine many of the lesser known aspects of the war, such as women’s peace activism, the treatment of war veterans, the experiences of conscientious objectors, colonial involvement, commemoration and peace-building then and now.
There’s an opportunity for attendees to hear Dr Who and Withnail and I star Paul McGann talking about his role in the BBC’s classic World War One drama The Monocled Mutineer, a fictionalised story based on a real mutiny.
Walter Ayles went on to become an MP. Copyright: National Portrait Gallery London
Bristol absolutists include men like Walter Ayles, an objector on political and religious grounds, who was a local councillor both before and after the war – and was elected as a Bristol MP in the early 1920s.
Frank Merrick, who was born in Bristol but was a professor of music in Manchester by the time war broke out, objected on humanitarian grounds – he was a vegetarian and would not kill another being. Stone mason Alfred James was an atheist and his objection was political. All three spent their war in prison.
Bristol’s conscientious objectors, like others around the country, were supported by a network of people and organisations who, for various reasons, opposed the war.
In Bristol, important stories include the work of organiser Mabel Tothill and of the ‘watchers’ who collected and relayed information about the movements and treatment of conscientious objectors in the military, in work camps and in prison.
And there are stories of intrigue, including information about underground networks of resistance and secret agents – like that of George Barker, who was prosecuted for hiding men who were evading the military in a secret dug-out below his bicycle shop.
These local stories are told by a booklet being launched at the festival; Refusing to Kill: Bristol’s World War I Conscientious Objectors by Remembering the Real World War 1. They are also told in a puppet show and puppet walk by local puppet theatre company Otherstory.
Main photo: The three Whiteford brothers
Read more: 11 things you probably didn’t know about Bristol’s role in World War One
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
