WILLIAM THOMAS ABBOTT

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WILLIAM THOMAS ABBOTT (1895­-?)

William was born in 1895 in Islington and was the youngest of the three Abbott CO brothers.   He worked as a Salesman, having been a Cheesemonger’s Assistant on the 1911 Census.  Details of the rest of his family can be found on the Abbott Brothers sheet.

We do not know the motivation for William applying for exemption fro military service on grounds of conscience on 22^nd March 1916, nor do we know why his application was heard by Brighton Military Service Tribunal, which granted him exemption from combatant service. The Pearce Register gives his address as  Stanhope Gardens, Harringay, in Tottenham.

 William accepted allocation to the Non-Combatant Corps and on 18^th April 1916 – joined 8^th Eastern Non Combatant Corps at Cheltenham.  In November of the same year he was transferred to a different Eastern Division.  He has very limited military records but we can learn from them that William was a relatively small man, standing some 5’3.25” tall.

We have, as yet, found no more information about William other than that he very likely married Blanche Meadows in 1922.

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Jennifer Bell

WILLIAM COOK

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WILLIAM COOK (?-?)

William Cook’s name is on the Pearce Register, but very little is known about this man, other than that he was a Moulder in Brass, Silver and Aluminium and lived in Hornsey, possibly at 2 Christchurch Road, Crouch End.

We have too little information to be able to trace his birth family, but he seems to have been married with two children.

Though we have no details of any Tribunal appearances he must have applied to at least one as he was given Work of National Importance under the Pelham Committee between 3 May 1917 and 29 May 1919.

First he worked at his trade for Phosphor Bronze Co.   He became ill and once recovered went to be a Dockers’ Tallyman at St. Katherine’s Dock.

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Jennifer Bell

EDWARD GIBBONS COOK

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Edward Gibbons COOK (1883-?)

Edward lived at 22 Bryanstone Road, Crouch End, Hornsey, and was a Schoolteacher by profession.  He was born in Kingston, Surrey in the last quarter of 1883, so was 33 in 1916.

He was the eldest of the seven children of Louisa and Edward Cook, the latter a Railway Porter.

On the 1901 Census Edward was aged 17 and a Pupil Teacher – he then lived with his parents, 3 brothers and 3 sisters at 1 Isabella Cottages, Cul de Sac Road, East Molesey, Surrey.  By 1911 he had moved to London and was lodging with two elderly widows in Alexandra Road, Upper Holloway.  His Census entry describes him as an Elementary School Teacher.

Hornsey Tribunal granted him exemption from combatant service and on 18^th August 1916 he enrolled with the 7^th Eastern Non-Combatant Corps in Mill Hill.

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DAVID COOK

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David COOK (1892-?)

David is one of those whom Cyril Pearce calls ‘Soldier COs’.   There are several such men in this collection, who started out applying for, and sometimes gaining, exemption on conscientious grounds from combatant service or even absolute exemption – but later, for one reason or another, joined up.   We felt it only fair to include them as they were at some point at least convinced enough to embark on the difficult road of becoming a Conscientious Objector. 

David, born in 1892, was a schoolteacher living at 5 Hornsey Lane Gardens, Highgate, in Hornsey, in 1916.   Nothing is known of his family, but we do know he appeared before Hornsey Tribunal on 21^st March 1916 and was granted a certificate of exemption from combatant service (No.92).

On 5^th May he joined the 3^rd Eastern Regiment of the Non-Combatant Corps at Mill Hill, but on the 26^th of that month he transferred to the Royal Fusiliers and later to the Royal West Kents. He was promoted to Lance Corporal, served at home from May to December 1916, in France from December 1916 to June 1917 and then back home until December 1917.

He was wounded and awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

He was demobbed to 17 Haringey Park, Crouch End, Hornsey.

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FREDERICK PLIMSOLL CLYMA

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Frederick Plimsoll Clyma (1884-1971)

Frederick was born in New Southgate in January 1884 and died in Poplar in 1971 aged 87. The fourth of six children of Elizabeth and Frederick Clyma (a Commercial Traveller originally from Cornwall), he lived with his family at 19 Harrington Grove, Islington in 1891 according to the Census. By 1901 he was a boarder at 68 Hanley Road with his sister Constance (b.1878) and brother George (b.1882) On the 1911 Census he was a boarder, without siblings, at 107 Woodstock Road.

His address given in 1916 was again 68 Hanley Road and he was a Warehouseman. Frederick was a member of the International Bible Study Association (this group later became the Jehovah’s Witnesses) and does not appear to have applied for exemption from military service. Some COs regarded even application as a process they should not go through.

We don’t know what happened to him in the first year and a half of conscription but he was arrested on 17^th November 1917 for absenteeism and appeared at N. London Police Court, fined 40/-d and handed over to a military escort, taken to Stratford where he was enrolled into the Middlesex Regiment. According to his military records he ‘disobeyed orders of a superior officer’ on 24th November, was court-martialled at Mill Hill on 5^th December and given 112 days hard labour which he served in Wormwood Scrubs.

In January 1918 he was sent to the Home Office Scheme at Knutsford Work Centre and then HOS Dartmoor.   This was as a result of a Central Tribunal hearing on 11^th January where he was found to be a CO Class A.

Frederick married Kathleen Leahy in 1936.

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THOMAS CLANCY

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Thomas CLANCY (1881-?)

Thomas was an Irish national, born in County Galway on 12^th April 1881. He came to England and worked as a GPO Sorter. On the 1911 Census he was living with his wife of four years and their three year old daughter at 27 North Road, Highgate, Hornsey, in 2 rooms.   Five years later the family is still at the same address now with ‘four delicate little children.’

Thomas was 35 in 1916 when conscription came in and some occupations in the Post Office were certified as Work of National Importance. However, as a Roman Catholic, Thomas applied to Hornsey Tribunal for exemption from military service, but he was turned down. His appeal to the Middlesex Tribunal states: “War or the taking part in war is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ. I would be filled with remorse for the rest of my life were I to take human life, I cannot take part in war no matter what the consequences to myself.”

Mr. Neild, the Chair of the Middlesex Appeal Tribunal, notes on Thomas’ papers, on 26^th September 1916, “Appeal withdrawn. Exempted from military service conditional on continuing in his present occupation”.

MH47

ALFRED CLARKE

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Alfred Clarke (1883-?)

Alfred was a Christadelphian whose place of worship was in Finsbury Park, north London. He was 33 when conscription came in and worked as a Shop Manager for a Rubber Stamp Manufacturers. He lived at 81 Effingham Road, Hornsey, with his mother, Emily and his brother, Arthur Charlton Clarke – a decorator four years older than Alfred.

He applied to Hornsey Tribunal, claiming absolute exemption, on religious grounds. They gave him exemption from combatant service. This did not satisfy Alfred’s needs, so he appealed to Middlesex Tribunal, saying: “I have been a Christadelphian for eight years. Military service being contrary to the teaching of the New Testament I cannot take part in same either as a combatant or a non-combatant, as both form part of the great war machine organised to destroy life”

 This Tribunal accepted his argument and gave exemption conditional on taking up Work of National Importance – he was allocated to be an attendant at the City of London Asylum from 30^th June 1916

GEORGE HULBERT CHETTLE

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George Hulbert CHETTLE 1887-1960 

George was the younger son of Margaret and Henry Chettle; the latter being Headteacher of the Stationers’ School in Crouch End, Hornsey, from 1881 to 1913. His mother died when George was about 9 and he and his brother were brought up by their father and his elder sister. The family lived at 76 Ridge Road, Stroud Green, Hornsey, very near to the School.

George became an architect and designer and when conscription came in he applied to Hornsey Tribunal on 23^rd March for absolute exemption from military service on religious grounds.   Although some branches of the Chettle family were Quakers, George’s immediate family seem to have been Church of England, as that is where they were married and baptised.

His application was refused, but the  Middlesex Appeal Tribunal granted exemption from combatant service on grounds of conscience. He was referred to Mill Hill Barracks and asked to be put in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but they enrolled him in the Royal Fusiliers. It was not uncommon for Conscientious Objectors to be placed in combatant regiments – whether by accident or deliberately – but this was, as in George’s case, usually corrected later. He was transferred to the Non Combatant Corps where he remained until 1919.

Later in life George became quite well-known as the author of Government pamphlets on buildings of national importance, like Hampton Court.

The Chettle name is still known in the area where he lived – a housing estate built near to 76 Ridge Road and the site of the former Stationers School is named Chettle Court after his father.

George died in 1960 at the age of 73.

PR/IWM      MH47

 

FREDERICK CHARLES CATTELL

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Frederick Charles CATTELL (1885-1955)

Frederick, having lived for some years in Birmingham, the birthplace of his father Charles Henry, moved with his family to 83 North View Road, Hornsey, sometime before the 1911 Census. On the 1901 Census they had left Snow Hill, Birmingham and were already in Hornsey, living at Frobisher Road, Harringay, Hornsey.   The rest of the family was mother Clara and two younger siblings.   Father Charles seems to have been a Gunmaker in Birmingham but became a typewriter mechanic in London.

Frederick was 31 in 1916, living at 2 Temple Road and working as a assurance agent.

How Frederick started his journey to become a CO is not known as we have no Tribunal records for him until he appeared before the Central Tribunal in July 1916.

We know that at some point before that he had been made to enrol in the 15^th/2^ndMiddlesex Regiment. It is likely that he had been an absentee who had been picked up and taken under military escort to a Barracks and put into the Army.

It looks as if he subsequently disobeyed orders, because Frederick was court martialled on 1^st July 1916 at Shoreham Barracks and sentenced to two years Hard Labour – later commuted to 112 days – which he served in Wormwood Scrubs.

At his second appearance before the Central Tribunal on 4^th August he was found to be a CO Class A and referred to the Brace Committee. He spent the rest of the War in Home Office Scheme Work Centres: August 1916 he was road-mending in Clare, W. Suffolk; from August 1917 to January 1918 he was at Dartmoor Work Centre and then on 22 January moved to Minworth, Birmingham

Frederick died in Bromley, Kent in 1955, aged 69.

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ARTHUR HERBERT CATES

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Arthur Herbert CATES (1885-1940)

Born in St. Pancras, by 1916 Arthur was an Assistant Customs Clerk, living at 84 Barrington Road, Crouch End, Hornsey. His father, Herbert, was a librarian living with his family in London in 1901  By the 1911 Census Herbert, his wife Jessie, Arthur and Arthur’s younger sister Jessie Maud, had moved to  Bournemouth where Herbert had become a bookseller.  Arthur is described on this census as a Civil Servant

Arthur claimed absolute exemption from military service at Hornsey Tribunal in March 1916, firstly on grounds of being needed to help support his family, particularly his father;  secondly on grounds of infirmity, saying that he was ‘feeble and consumptive’ and thirdly on conscientious grounds: He mentioned the Christian virtue of non-violent resistance to evil, the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and said: “I am a follower of Tolstoy’s teaching that all war is madness and wickedness and results from the evil and antiquated sentiment of patriotism.”  His claim for exemption was refused by the Hornsey Tribunal.

On 10th April he appealed to Middlesex Tribunal who felt he had proved his conscientious objection; Arthur was given exemption from combatant service.

Nothing is known of what he did after his appearance at Middlesex.  In the absence of any further appeal records he may have joined a non combatant corps.  Arthur died aged 55 in the Registration District of Edmonton in 1941.

PR/IWM      MH47 (NB he is wrongly called Arthur Ernest Cates on the National Archive Records)