Historians have been ‘lazy about interpreting how the war went’
THE opposition to the First World War has often been overlooked amid a general sense that young men flocked to join the services in a prevailing mood of jingoism.
In his book, whose gestation was as long ago as 1977, Aled Eirug has described extensively the different strands of opposition that existed – some inspired by religious convictions and others predominantly political.
His two inspirations were his father, who was a conscientious objector during the Second World War, and the grandfather he never met, who was a conscientious objector during World War One.
He said: “I suppose you could say that I come from a serial family of troublemakers, especially working as an investigative journalist. When I initially started work on this, I hadn’t really considered in any structured way why I was doing it.
“I started by looking at the First World War and not really having much idea about what my grandfather did. I knew that my father was a conscientious objector who worked on the land and in hospitals in that period, which you were allowed to do. But he very rarely spoke about his direct experience, and to my shame I never really asked him either.
“Then I read a bit more – my grandfather published some books about that period, and in particular about the principal of the theological college he’d been to in Bangor. My grandfather was the author of a book of essays about Principal Thomas Rees, who was perhaps the leading light in the anti-war religious movement in Wales in that period – and that excited my interest.
“I started by writing a shortish essay in 1977 as part of my history course at Aberystwyth with Dr Deian Hopkin. I then thought little of it – I didn’t have any ambition to be an academic researcher. I was far more interested in real life. I didn’t turn back to it until about 2010.”
Speaking about TE Nicholas, a minister of religion who was one of the best known opponents of the war, Dr Eirug said: “He was a Marxist and a Christian. People tend to separate the religious and the political, but for many of these men who opposed the war, they had a moral case against it – they saw it as being capitalist, imperialist and against the working classes. That analysis, which is not just Marxist but moral as well, was quite common on the left within the movement against the war.
“Nicholas was the greatest propagandist of all – certainly in the Welsh language. He was the editor of the Welsh language section of the Merthyr Pioneer, which was the Independent Labour Party paper produced in Merthyr and is a very important source for knowing about the opposition to the First World War.
In his latest Martin Shipton Meets podcast, our chief reporter talks to Dr Aled Eirug, a journalist turned academic who has written a book called The Opposition to the Great War in Wales 1914-1918
“My view is that historians have tended to be a bit lazy about interpreting how the war went, and haven’t described sufficiently the subtleties in the differences and nuances in responses to the war from 1914 through to 1918, depending on where you are and what you’re doing. For example, in 1914 there was recruiting at the beginning of the war, but it was very slow in rural areas of Wales and especially in Welsh-speaking areas. It was only by the end of that year that it started to pick up, and actually it dipped in 1915 after about April and May – which is partly why they had to bring in conscription in 1916. They were getting desperate for men to come into the army.
“In 1916 was the [Battle of the] Somme and a huge realisation of the cost of the war. 1917 was a period of terrible economic and social dislocation – economic crisis partly caused by the intervention of German submarine warfare and so forth. And although you had America committing to come into the war, that wasn’t really seen until 1918. 1917 I’d describe, certainly the summer, as a time when the Government got very nervous about the impact of the Russian Revolution. People saw the possibilities of that sort of political action. You got greater pressure for an end to the war and an increase in the peace movement.”
In south Wales in particular the miners stopped conscription from being introduced in the mining industry for a period from January 1917, which was when the Government wanted to introduce it, to November and December 1917 when a ballot was held and was won by the people who wanted conscription.
Dr Eirug said: “That is an indicator, I think, of the extent of the antiwar movement and how influential it was in certain areas.
“Another factor was the influence of the Independent Labour Party, which was strongest in the industrial areas like West Glamorgan – Briton Ferry, Port Talbot, the Afan Valley – then over to Merthyr and Aberdare, down the Rhymney Valley and the main towns Swansea, Newport and Cardiff.
“They weren’t necessarily associated with the coal industry – they were associated with the tinplate and steel industry around the Briton Ferry area for example, where many of the leaders of the ILP were very prominent in the local trade unions.”
Throughout Britain, 73 conscientious objectors died because of the bad conditions they endured in jail and under the control of the military.
Dr Eirug said: “Seven of those conscientious objectors were from Wales, including the first one to die, Walter Roberts. He died at Dyce, near Aberdeen. Altogether about 250 men were sent there. They were given accommodation in tents that dated back to the Boer War and were totally unsuitable. In the weather – the rain and so forth – Walter Roberts got a chill. He went to see the doctor, who wouldn’t do anything with him, and he died within a couple of days.
“It was a sad story, and one of the elements of this is that a lot of the conscientious objectors weren’t particularly strong. They might have been able to avoid conscription by pleading ill health or not being strong enough, but they didn’t do that. They went through the process and took what came to them.”