Conscientious objectors question

[johnboy]

I don't think it was a priviledge. Soldiers rations included tobacco.

[Magnumbellum]

I am trying to write some fiction set during WW1 and I wanted to be as accurate as possible. With smoking being so prevalent then and normal prisoners being allowed to smoke I wondered if this "privilege" was denied them.

Conscientious objectors serving sentences of imprisonment were subject to the same rules as other sentenced prisoners. There was no authority for any difference in treatment, and I know of no such instance.

For what it is worth, I would add that smoking and smoking materials do not feature much in CO accounts of prison life. This may well indicate that a much smaller proportion of COs smoked than among the male population generally.

[cassie]

The information about Wakefield was really useful thank you. I have an example of the way they were moved about. He was arrested in Barnsley in September 1916 where he was classed as an absentee, his tribunal was held at Wormwood Scrubs in Oct 1916 became a Class A prisoner. Court marshalled at Pontefract refused to sign the court martial. He was sent from Wormwood to Wakefield work centre transferred on a home office transfer scheme to army reserve refused to do the work and was sent back to Armley civil prison in Leeds.