Marriott Herbert Harrison

Oldham Tribunal 6 March 1916
Reported Oldham Chronicle 11 March 1916

Several claims for exemption from service under the Military Service Act on conscientious grounds were heard on Monday before the Oldham Tribunal, the Mayor presiding …

… Marriott H Harrison of 32 Churchill-street East, a clerk in a mill office, claimed exemption on the ground of a conscientious objection against taking human life and also that the family would suffer serious hardship if he was taken away, and that he suffered from rheumatism. A brother and a brother-in-law were already in the army. He objected to taking life on moral grounds. On no account could he take another man's life.

"Before I would do it, I would suffer the extreme penalty of the law," he said.

It turned out the man had no objection to non-combatant service and he was accordingly sent for service in that section.

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The WO 363 records for Marriott Herbert Harrison survive (held at The National Archives, available online via Find My Past):

20 December 1916 Enlisted at Ashton under Lyne 4th Western Company Non Combatant Corps. Service number 3491
Height 5 ft 6 ¼ ins
22 December 1916 Posted to Kinmel
11 May 1918 Transferred to 8th Eastern Company Non Combatant Corps
7 January 1920 Discharged to Army Reserve.

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He has an entry on the Pearce List HERE.
The Pearce List of over 17500 WW1 Conscientious Objectors can be found on the Imperial War Museum's website HERE.

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Born Oldham, 29 December 1889
Died Oldham, 10 February 1952

1911 census
43 Woodstock Street, Oldham
Single with widowed mother and siblings
Occ: Clerk in cotton spinning mill office

1939 register
32 Churchill Street East
Single with widowed mother and single brother, John
Occ: Civil Service Clerk

Contributed by Dorothy Bintley