Haringey First World War Peace Forum

The Haringey First World War Peace Forum was a small working group in north London, researching the conscientious objectors who were associated with the districts of Hornsey, Tottenham and Wood Green (now comprising the London Borough of Haringey). The working group was set up in 2014 to contribute to the remembrance of the First World War and was formally wound up in October 2019.

The aims of the working group were to research the lives of conscientious objectors and their supporters; promote activities and events within Haringey to commemorate the local conscientious objectors and develop educational materials and activities to inform the wider public of the legacy of war resistance before, during and after the First World War.

This blog records the results of the research carried into the men who resisted conscription between 1916 and 1918 and is an online memorial to inform the wider public of the numbers of local men and their experiences as conscientious objectors.

You can see our Annual Report 2016, Annual Report 2017, 2018 Annual Report and 2019 Final report from here. There are also photographs in a Picture Gallery  at https://conscientiousobjectionremembered.wordpress.com/gallery/ which show some of our activities.

In August 2014 the group mounted a street re-enactment of a local anti-war meeting that took place on 5 August 1914 out side the Salisbury pub on Green lanes. This event was well supported by the local traders association and enthusiastically received by the 200 people who attended.

For three months in 2015 an exhibition at the Bruce Castle Museum, in Tottenham, curated by Peace Pledge Union and Haringey Archives, told the story of COs from Haringey.

To mark the 2016 centenary of conscription, Clive Barrett, Chair of the Peace Museum, Bradford, gave a vivid presentation about the COs, with a choir performing some of the stirring songs that inspired them.

All the COs associated with each of the three local authorities which made up Haringey have been listed and biographies of the men written up.  Under this page you will find the lists of men associated with Hornsey, Tottenham and Wood Green with links to their individual biographies.

A page on Conscientious Objection leads to a series of posts describing the extent of conscientious objection in England and the districts of north London during the First World War. There is also a Select Bibliography for further reading.

In September 2017 the group received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project to run until 2019 culminating in a permanent memorial to the men of the Haringey area who said No to War. This memorial was unveiled by local councillors on the 15 May 2019.

To find out more about the Conscientious Remembered Project go to the website  www.conscientiousobjectionremembered.wordpress.com or on follow Conscientious Objection Remembered @HFWWPF on Facebook.

Anyone with queries about the work of the HFWWPF before it wound up in 2019 should  email hfwwpf@yahoo.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License for personal and non commercial use only.