Non-Combatants

[chris basey]

NON-COMBATANT CORPS

Trying to put together biographical details for a private in the 1st Eastern Coy Non Combatant Corps who died on 27 November 1918 and is buried at Etaples.

I understand that some conscientious objectors accepted call-up into this corps and became Army privates but did not carry arms.

Has anyone done any research on this topic, may know something about the 1st Eastern Company and what they were doing at the end of the war?

Chris Basey

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Many Conciencious Objectors (Cos) were members of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU). You will find some interesting background info on the PPU and COs on www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs. This includes details of PPU members joined the NCC amd RAMC.

[Terry_Reeves]

Chris

The NCC was established on 10 March 1916 by Army Order 112, 1916.

Army Council Instruction (ACI)No 456, 1916 directed that recruits who held certificates of exemption from combatant service (via the Military Service Tribunals)and who found service in the NCC acceptable, should be temporarily attached to an infantry depot or reserve battalion pending the establishment of the NCC. ACI No 551, 1916 directed that:

"Companies of the NCC will be trained in squad drill without arms and in the use of various forms of tools used in field engineering. The privates will be equipped as infantry except that they will not be armed or trained with arms of any description."

Although some units were posted to France, instructions were issued that they were not to go into the firing line or be given tasks such as erecting barbed wire.

The Officers and NCO's were drawn from the regular infantry. These were men who had been found fit for general service abroad on the lines of communication. (ACI No 551, 1916).

For information about Conscientious Objection during WW1, "Conscience and Politics" by John Rae, Oxford University Press, 1970, is highly recommended

Terry Reeves

[charlesmessenger]

The companies were raised by the various home commands, hence the title of No 1 Eastern Company, which was formed by Eastern Command. This was the first to go to France, on 22 April 1916. It was followed by:

No 1 Southern Coy 28 April

No 1 Northern Coy 29 April

No 2 Eastern Coy 8 May

No 3 Eastern Coy 30 May

No 1 Western 30 May

No 1 Scottish 30 May

No 2 Northern 30 May

No formal NCC depot was ever established and they continued to be based on regimental depots and Reserve bns. There was, however, an NCC HQ at the depot of the Royal Warwicks.

They were not allowed to handle any warlike stores, and the companies in France were largely employed in quarrying and camp building. According to the Director of Labour in France their company commanders considered their work to be satisfactory in every respect. Although `the men are healthy and very strong physically they are mostly men of some slight mental derangement.'

Alas, no war diaries exist for the NCC, but the Peace Pledge Union archive, which Heritage Plus mentions, will probably shed much more light.

Charles M

[Ivor Lee]

Chris

The only location I have come across for 1 Eastern NCC Company aaround the end of the war is:

28 August 1918 when the Company moved from ATTIN to ALENCON. There is, unfortunately, no reference to what they were doing at either locations.

I have data on the Court Martialsof NCC men so if you let me know the man's name I will see if he is among the information I have extracted so far.

[Ivor Lee]

Chris

Sorry there was a typing error in my last reply. The date should have been 22 November 1918.

[Magnumbellum]

Many Conciencious Objectors (COs) were members of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU). You will find some interesting background info on the PPU and COs on www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs. This includes details of PPU members joined the NCC amd RAMC.

This needs clarifying. The PPU was founded in 1934, so no PPU member could have joined the NCC or RAMC during the Great War, although some did during the Second World War. It is true, however, that the PPU has much information on British conscientious objectors (of all conscription periods), and anyone, including Chris Basey, researching an individual conscientious objector would be well advised to contaxct the PPU archivist archives@ppu.org.uk to see whether the CO is in the PPU's CO database, currently including over 4000 WW1 COs (over 25 % of the 16,000 WW1 COs).