WALTER CHARLES HOHNRODT

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Walter Charles HOHNRODT (1898-1988)

Walter lived at 20 Wightman Road, Harringay, in Hornsey, and was of German Heritage.   The youngest of six children, Walter was born in West Ham on 8 July 1898. His parents were Eva and Oscar (William) Hohnrodt.   Oscar Hohnrodt was born in Brunswick, Germany, was unnaturalised, was a successful corn-dealer and was interned at Alexandra Palace. The family business of 15 years was lost and since then, Walter said, they had ‘slipped lower and lower down the social scale’.

Professionally Walter was a Veterinary Research Assistant at the Royal Veterinary College.   He became a Socialist and member of the No Conscription Fellowship.

His Tribunal applications and appeals for absolute exemption to Hornsey and Middlesex were all turned down until October 1917, when the Central Tribunal exempted him to the Home Office Scheme. Walter refused HOS conditions and courts martial and sentences to hard labour followed, served in Wormwood Scrubs and then in Wandsworth Prisons between late 1917 and June 1919.

In January 1919 he went on hunger strike and was released due to illness on 13 Jan under the so-called 1913 Cat and Mouse Act (which had been used against hunger-striking suffragettes). Walter was re-arrested and re-imprisoned until June 1919. At the end of the war and while he was still in prison he heard that his father had been deported to Germany.

We have a number of his statements which show his beliefs and experience:

• To Hornsey Tribunal:      “I am the son of a German born in Brunswick and consider it the worst form of cowardice and despicability for a man to fight against his father’s country and blood relatives.”                     “I cannot think of taking up arms in a war in which the working class of both sides are used as pawns to satisfy the greed and covetousness of the capitalist.”
• To Middlesex on appeal: “My remarks were restricted to two minutes during which I was expected to explain my conscience. I am a conscientious objector against all war from a moral point of view. Life to me is a sacred thing.”
• To Central Tribunal:       “The Appeal Tribunal decided that I had a moral conscientious objection, but insofar as it was not a religious objection I was not entitled to exemption. This distinction seems to have been made contrary to the Military Service Act.”

Walter died in Stevenage 1988