The duties of Non-Combatant Corps

[Magnumbellum]

22 hours ago, Chris_Baker said:

I have today added a page about the NCC onto the Long, Long Trail. It includes one of the saddest human stories I have come across. https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-non-combatant-corps-2/

 

Thanks for this useful piece of work. However, a couple of clarifications are appropriate.

 

It is extremely unlikely that the photograph is of NCC men. The main problem is that none is wearing uniform, not even anyone in charge. And it is not a case of wearing specially issued overalls, as the men are wearing ordinary civilian suits, including waistcoats, and civilian flat caps.

 

That does not mean that the men are not conscientious objectors. They very probably are, but not in the NCC. It is most likely a group of men released from prison to go on the Home Office Scheme, providing civilian work under civilian control, as an alternative to forcing men into the Army, where they regularly disobeyed orders, leading to court-martial and imprisonment, serving no useful purpose for anyone. There were two projects in the summer of 1916 organised by the Road Board under the auspices of the HO Scheme - one was at Denton, near Newhaven, Sussex, and the other at Clare, Suffolk.  The photograph will be of one of those, necessarily involving men wearing ordinary civilian clothes, but someone, seeing mention of conscientious objectors, has put two and two together and made five and a half.

 

The other clarification is that John Oliver Thomas was not the first NCC man to die in France and be buried in a CWGC grave; he was the second. The first was Duncan McDonald, who was found dead on a railway line on 4 June 1916, He has been previously discussed on GWF. He came from a remote area of Argyll, far from a railway, and it is possible that when exploring the local area off duty, not long after arriving in France, he did not not realise the danger of walking too close to, or even trying to cross, railway lines. Another sad story.