James Hill

Oldham Tribunal 9 March 1916
Reported Oldham Standard 10 March 1916

James Hill, a young tinsmith of 217 Horsedge-street sought total exemption on grounds of conscience and in his written statement of appeal said that in his opinion all war in wrong.

Answering questions, the applicant made it clear that he refused to take any part in the war; his mind was fully made up and he refused to have any complicity in it in any shape or form.

Councillor Frith: To what extent will you go to in order to resist service?
The Man: The extreme penalty.

Councillor Frith: Then why trouble to appeal here? It appears to me that if there's a loophole through which you can creep out without going to the length of risking the extreme penalty, you are prepared to take advantage of it.

The man reiterated that he could not serve and added that neither did he intend to do any war work.

Councillor Frith: My own view is that a conscientious objector, prepared to go to the full extreme, would not take the trouble of finding a loophole. I can't help feeling that you are here to let people believe that you are a martyr and, in my opinion, you are not.

The applicant: If I had not appeared, you would have said, "He's no man!" He added, "I claim the exemption: I don't ask!"

Councillor Frith: Have you accepted a war bonus?
The applicant: No, I have accepted a rise of wages.
Councillor Frith: I say distinctly that you are accepting a war bonus. Your trade applied for a bonus and got it.

It was pointed out to the man that he was is a reserved occupation and he said that he did not want exemption on that ground but on the ground that he was a conscientious objector. He could not accept trade exemption.

The Mayor: You are a foolish young man.
The applicant: I don't want to shelter behind a reserved trade.
The Mayor: You have had bad schoolmasters my dear boy.
Councillor Schofield: He's afraid he is going to miss a cheap martyrdom.

The man was ordered for non-combatant service.

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South East Lancashire Appeal Tribunal at Manchester Town Hall 30 March 1916
Reported Oldham Chronicle 1 April 1916 (the following is an extract)

The South-east Lancashire Appeal Tribunal sitting at the Town Hall Manchester on Thursday afternoon heard appeals for total exemption from service made by a number of young men of Oldham, conscientious objectors, who had been sent to non-combatant service in most cases by the Oldham Tribunal and in a few cases to combatant service ….

…. James Hill of 217 Horsedge-street, a tinsmith, wrote that he could not conscientiously undertake non-combatant military service, nor could he allow his normal occupation to be made a condition of exemption, for that would convert his work into an acknowledged contribution to the organisation of the nation when prosecuting war. He had a profound religious conviction that war involved the denial of brotherhood.

The Chairman asked what objection could he have to going into non-combatant service? Everybody was trying to assist the conscientious objectors as much as possible. The Government had appointed a special committee in order to arrange that they should not be asked to do any work contrary to their consciences. What more could they expect? The next thing would be to have people objecting to pay taxes on conscientious grounds. Where was it going to end?

Hill: I suppose you cannot live in a country without doing something.
Asked if he smoked, he replied: I only smoke them when I have them given to me. (Laughter)
He said after a little more talk that he believed the best way to help would be to advocate peace.

Chairman: We are in a mess and we are liable to be squashed and otherwise ill-treated. Why not all pull together and do it? I cannot understand people not trying to help others who are in distress. When you are as old as I am, you will know that it is the greatest happiness there is.

The tribunal decided that Hill must go to non-combatant service upon which he said: I cannot accept it.

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James Hill with
John Amey, Samuel Amey, Charles Henry Taylor, Harry Palmer, Ernest Hill [brother]

Oldham Magistrates' Court 28 April 1916
Reported Oldham Chronicle 28 April 1916

A special session of magistrates was held this (Friday) morning at the Oldham Town Hall to deal with six cases under the Military Service Act. The men charged were:
Samuel Amey (27) of 83 Burlington Avenue, clerk
Charles Henry Taylor (24) of 5 Studley Street, cop packer
Harry Palmer (25) of 370 Huddersfield Road
John Amey (23) of 8 Trinity Street, clerk
James Hill (24) of 217 Horsedge Street, tinsmith
Ernest Hill (19) of 217 Horsedge Street, clerk

In the public gallery a large number of friends and relatives of the defendants gathered and the Rev M Ph Davies also sat there.
The justices on the bench were Mr John Grime (in the chair) and Mr Albert Horrobin.

The Chief Constable said the six men were charged with being absentees under the Military Service Act 1896. They had all had notices sent to them by the military authorities to report themselves at the Swan Hotel on the 25th and they had failed to report.

The Clerk (Mr Hesketh Booth) asked the elder Amey whether he admitted that.
Amey: Yes
The Chief Constable: That you have had the notice?
- Yes
The Clerk: What excuse have you?
Amey: I claim that there is a conscience clause in the Act and owing to its maladministration we have been denied our right under it. Members of the Oldham Tribunal, and Alderman Hirst in a letter to the press, stated that they could not grant absolute exemption for conscientious objection but later on, a letter was issued by Mr Walter Long stating that they could and I think we should have a retrial. When we came before Judge Mellor at Manchester he referred us to the Pelham Committee and we have had no opportunity of appearing before the committee to see what work of national importance could be found for us.

The Clerk: I don't know that the magistrates can do anything to give effect to your objection. You have lost your appeal in both cases.
Amey: The local tribunal gave us exemption from combatant service and, if they had been rightly informed as to the law, they might have given us total exemption.
The Clerk: The magistrates have no power over that.
Amey: I don't think we have had a fair trial.
The Clerk: I have no doubt that some of the tribunals have conducted their business in a way I should not approve of myself but I don't think the magistrates can interfere with it.

Amey: With regard to Judge Mellor referring us to the Pelham Committee, the military authorities have not given us time to find work of national importance and I think the case might be adjourned for that purpose. If the military authorities will suspend this warrant we may possibly get some redress from that source.

The clerk (to Sergeant Major Bailey): What do you say to that?
Sergeant Major Bailey: I think they had better be handed over to the military authorities and let them deal with it.
The Chief Constable said that Captain Aked thought that was the proper course.
The Clerk said he was not sure of that. He did not agree with everything the military authorities did. They were very often wrong.

Amey said that if they were handed over to the military authorities they would not have the bench to appeal to and they would not be likely to get any redress. He thought, in view of Judge Mellor's remarks, they ought to have a postponement to enable the committee to state what was work of national importance.

The Chairman: I think you have had two chances and you ought to go now. You have been before two courts.

Amey said there were some of them who would have to resist if they were forced into the army, but they felt they could undertake certain work of a civil character of national importance but not to release another man to go to fight.

The Chairman: I have no sympathy with you. Others have had to go before you and at a time like this the question of conscience --------
Amey: But the Act provides a conscience clause for us and the tribunal was under a misapprehension.
The Clerk: Yes, I know they were and there has been a decision of the Court of Appeal against you on that point, a decision that I don't agree with.

Taylor, on being asked what he had to say, said that he associated himself with what Amey had said. Palmer did likewise and went on to add that Judge Mellor at the Appeal Tribunal told them that they were beyond him and that he handed them over to the Pelham Committee, that they should trust the government who had said that they would find them work of national importance. If they were handed over to the military authorities now, they would never be permitted to get before that committee.

The Clerk: I don't know. I should think you could. Do you say that they would say you have no right to go before that committee?
Taylor said he knew that it had been done and men had been told that the Pelham Committee had no standing and that they had to report themselves.
The Clerk: You are all in the non-combatant section?
- Yes.
The Chairman: Isn't it all trying to waste time?
- No.
The Chairman: I think it is.

Amey said he was a clerk in the Education Committee's office and, as far as the Pelham Committee had reported, education was included as a work of national importance.
The Chief Constable: He would keep his job here.

James Hill, when asked what he had to say, said they claimed the same right as a Christadelphian who was before the magistrates on the previous day. He was a Primitive Methodist and he claimed to have the same right to exemption as a Christadelphian. He did not think a member of one denomination should be exempt and others not.
The Chief Constable said that that case had not finally been disposed of but had only been withdrawn pending consideration.

Amey said he thought a similar course ought to be taken in the present cases.
The Clerk: How long do you want it adjourned for?
Amey: I don't think the Pelham Committee have finally reported yet. He said he could produce a copy of the report in the "Daily News" of Judge Mellor's remarks.

Mr Horrobin: That is not an official report.
Amey: No. but it is proof positive that the remarks were made. ----- Amey was unable to find his copy of the report but a friend in the gallery called out to say that he had one and this was brought down by the constable who was on duty in the gallery.

It was handed to the Clerk who perused it and read aloud a passage in which Judge Mellor, presiding at the Appeal Tribunal in Manchester, was reported to have said: "Parliament had done its best to meet such cases as theirs and had established a committee to consider what useful service they could be put to. He did not understand it, but it rested with that committee."
Amey: Yes that's it.

The defendants as nothing further to say and the Clerk and the justices had a somewhat lengthy and apparently heated consultation, in the course of which Mr Booth appeared to be emphasising a view which was not held by the magistrates. When the consultation concluded:

The Chairman said they were of the opinion that the defendants ought to have surrendered themselves and they would be fined 40s each and handed over to the military escort.

The defendants were then marched out of the court in charge of a sergeant, a corporal and a private of the Manchester Regiment and several police officers. There was a good deal of handshaking and farewells in the corridor, after which the defendants were taken downstairs to the police cells and shortly afterwards they were escorted to Clegg Street Station en route for Ashton Barracks.

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Oldham Chronicle 24 June 1916

An Oldham Conscientious Objector
Two years' sentence commuted to 16 weeks.

At the Primitive Methodist Conference at Nottingham on Saturday a letter was read from the Home Secretary in reply to a complaint that a Sunday school teacher of Oldham had been committed to prison for two years' hard labour on account of his objection to compulsory service. He was now incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs prison. (Cries of "Shame.")

The letter from the Home Secretary stated: "With reference to your letter of the 6th June, I am desired by the Home Secretary to say that he informed by the War Office that the sentence of two years with hard labour, passed on James Hill of Oldham, has been commuted to one of 112 days' imprisonment."

The Rev Matthew P Davison, a delegate, said there were many men under similar sentences in civil gaols.

The Rev S Horton said that in his opinion the reply was most unsatisfactory and that an emphatic protest ought to be sent from the Conference to the Government, especially where the men were willing to undertake other national work.

The President (the Rev A T Guttery) suggested that they should first ascertain all the facts of the case.

The matter was referred to the Agenda Committee

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

James Hill was 5ft 3½ins tall

He was enlisted in the 1 - 4 Western Non Combatant Corps at Ashton under Lyne on 29 April 1916, regimental number 814. He refused to sign his papers.
He was posted to Kinmel Park on 30 April 1916 and put in the Guard Room awaiting a Court Martial.
At the Court Martial he was charged with disobedience and sentenced to 112 days with hard labour. He was transferred to Wormwood Scrubs.
On 12 August 1916 he was released from prison because he had been irregularly enlisted and sent on furlough on 15 August 1916. He was sent to the army reserve on 22 September 1916.
On 31 March 1917 he was posted to 5 Western Non Combatant Corps.

Example pages from The WO 363 records for James Hill (link to larger image)

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He has an entry on the Pearce List on the Imperial War Museum's website HERE.

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Born Oldham, 26 November 1891
Died not found

1911 census:
The two brothers, James and Ernest, lived at 1, Frederick Street, Oldham with their parents James & Hannah.
Also there was brother Joseph Hill, age 24, who was also a CO, another brother and two sisters.
James age 19 was an apprentice tin-plate worker (Gas Meters)
Ernest age 14 was an apprentice Flyer maker (in the textile industry).

1939 Register :
40 Thurland Road, Oldham
With wife Betty, no children listed
Occ. Sheet metal worker, gas meters

Contributed by Dorothy Bintley