Huddersfield and WW1

[Guest TrevorM]

Roll of Honour Board - All Hallows Church, Almondbury Nr. Huddersfield

[Tony Lund]

A little more on anti-war feeling in Huddersfield; from the local socialist newspaper, “The Worker”.

At 7 p.m. on August 9th 1914, the Sunday after the war started, at a mass meeting in St. Georges Square, Huddersfield, the following resolution was passed:

“We, the workers of Huddersfield, send greetings to our comrades in Germany, France, Russia, Austria, and Servia, and declare that we have no quarrel with them. We call upon the general Federation of Trade Unions in Britain to communicate at once with the similar organisations in France, Germany, and Russia, with a view to the presentation of a joint demand to the respective Governments that the war shall cease forthwith. We further demand that when the war is ended an international congress of workers shall be held to prevent the further manufacture of war material and to make arrangements for the employment of all people thus displaced.”

Tony.

[Tony Lund]

Another report from the Worker states:

In May 1916, after a number of speeches had been given during an anti-conscription rally held at Saint George’s Square in Huddersfield, and the speakers had left the platform (a wagon), Joseph A. Flanders and Mr. H. B. Flanders climbed up and Joseph produced his call up notice. He said that for many years he had been a socialist and anti-militarist, and he was there to make a protest against the Military Service Act. He declared: “As a proof I openly and solemnly swear that I will not serve under any military law or do any military service likely to assist any military organization. As further proof I will publicly burn the papers the military authorities have give me.” The papers were then burned and Mr. H. B. Flanders called for three cheers: “For a man who has the courage of his convictions." The audience responded with the three cheers and then sang “The Red Flag”.

Tony.

[Guest mruk]

Thanks Tony. The lyrics for 'The Red Flag' are below.

http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/music/...en/red-flag.htm

Kind Regards,

Dave

[Magnumbellum]

Incidentally, does anyone know if there is a memorial to those who served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit and the like, and those who protested --not just in Huddersfield but elsewhere?

There are in Britain two commemorations of conscientious objectors.

In 1923 a wooden plaque was carved recording the names of 70 of the 80 + British WW1 COs known to have died as a result of the way they were treated. As a gesture of international solidarity, it was initially hung in the office of the German League of War Resisters in Berlin. In 1933 the secretary fled to Denmark and established a Peace House and hung the Plaque there. In 1940 he fled again to Sweden, but left the Plaque buried in the cellar. In 1945 he returned to Denmark and re-established the Peace House, complete with Plaque. After his death in 1957 the Plaque was returned to Britain and unveiled in the Peace Pledge Union office in London in 1959, by Fred Murfin, one of the WW1 COs who had been formally sentenced to death but reprieved. It remains with the PPU to this day and is a feature in their CO Resource Centre.

In 1994 a Commemorative Stone was unveiled in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London, by Sir Michael Tippett OM (himself imprisoned as a CO in WW2): To all those who have maintained and are maintaining the right to refuse to kill - men and women conscientious objectors all over the world and in every age. A short ceremony is held there every 15 May, International Conscientious Objectors' Day.

Earlier this year, 2013, at the National Memorial Arboretum (Alrewas, Staffordhire) a memorial was unveiled to the men and women of the WW2 Friends' Ambulance Unit and Friends' Relief Service. No explanation was offered as to why the WW1 counterparts of these organisations were apparently consciously excluded.