Joseph Hill

Oldham Tribunal 8 March 1916
Reported Oldham Chronicle 11 March 1916

There was a crowd of sympathising friends and relatives of the young conscientious objectors at the [Wednesday] evening session of the Tribunal. They heard the discussion and at times applauded their side …

… Joseph Hill, a stripper and grinder of 217 Horsedge-street, desired strongly to air his views on the subject but he is in a reserved occupation and the tribunal did not want to hear him.

Hill: But I appealed on conscientious grounds; I am not hiding behind my occupation.
The Mayor: Excuse me but so long as you are in a reserved occupation, we have nothing to do with you, except you want to go in the army.
Hill: Not likely.
The Mayor: If you want to get ground for your conscientious objection, you should leave your occupation and come up again.
Hill: I have appealed on conscientious ground. You have a right to hear me.

Town Clerk: If you are not going to be forced into the army the question of conscience does not arise. They won't take you.

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Oldham Tribunal 13 September 1916
Reported Oldham Standard 14 September 1916

It is so long since the Oldham Tribunal had to sift the appeal of a conscientious objector that one had begun to think that there were no more left in the town with temerity enough to appear in public defence of their scruples. But that it was not so was seen at Wednesday's sitting of the Tribunal when a considerable amount of time was given to hearing the appeals of two who sought exemption from the necessity of taking their place in the khaki clad ranks.

The first of the COs heard was in decidedly argumentative mood and drew down upon his head a stinging comment from one member of the Tribunal. The appellant in question was a single man, named Joseph Hill, aged 29 and described as a stripper and grinder. The man's address was give as 217 Horsedge-street.

In his written appeal he set forth that he conscientiously objected to taking any part in war - combatant or non-combatant. To him all human life was sacred and he regarded war as an abnegation of all that was best in mankind and an enemy and obstacle to human progress.

The Clerk (Mr J H Hallsworth) said that the man had been before the Tribunal previously and was then granted conditional exemption because he was in a reserved occupation.
Captain Almond: And now he has been unstarred.
The Mayor (Alderman Greaves) to appellant: I take it you have no objection to going into non-combatant service?
Hill: I object to making shells for men to fire at their fellow men. I think that the man who makes them is as bad as the man who fires them.

Councillor Frith: But non-combatant service does not mean the making of shells.
Hill: All non-combatant service is designed to help the military. Hospital work, for instance, helps the military machine and I refuse to compromise with the military at all.
Councillor Heywood: Have you made any sacrifices for your principles?
Hill: What sort of sacrifices?
Councillor Heywood: Why; for your poor fellow men who are fighting, for instance?
Hill: I am always making sacrifices, working men always are!
Councillor Heywood: I mean any special sacrifices. Your fellow men are in great trouble; they are bearing the brunt of a fight which is as much for you as for themselves.
Hill: What's that to do with my conscientious objection?
Alderman Hirst: What are you prepared to do in the way of work of national importance?
Hill: I am prepared to keep at my own occupation. It is work of national importance else the War Office would not have placed it among the reserved trades until recently.
Captain Almond: Will you continue to do that work at the Army rate of pay?
Hill (indignantly): Certainly not. Do you think that I am a blackleg?
Capt. Almond: Then there is no sacrifice?
Hill: We are 40 per cent worse off.
Capt. Almond: There are soldiers fighting for 1s 2d a day and I don't see, if you won't soldier, why you should not work for the same pay.
Answering Mr Jackson, Hill said that the basis of his objection was a moral one and that he had held it for eight years.
Councillor Heywood: But there are moral obligations to one's fellows as well as to oneself.
Councillor Frith wanted to know whether if Hill was told that part of the work which he did in the mill was for war purposes, he would remain in his situation and he replied with an emphatic negative.

A member asked whether Hill had any evidence that he could produce to show that he had held his anti-war opinions for years and the Tribunal were amused when he replied that he had and Councillor Frith could give it. Councillor Frith knew that he held views against war long before the present war.
Councillor Frith: I too am against war and the reason I am here is to help the nation get out of war.
Hill: The why don't you advocate peace?
Councillor Frith: I suppose you can't guarantee to me ----
Hill (interrupting): I object to that. Mr Walter Long has said that the questions addressed to us must appertain to the facts and not to suppositions and you, gentlemen are here to obey instructions.
In answer to Mr Jackson, who demanded proof that he had long held the views he now expressed, the man referred the Tribunal to the past and present minister of the Primitive Methodist Church which he had attended for years. Both had heard him express views in opposition to militarism and war.

The Town Clerk: But opposition to war is not one of the tenets of the sect?
Mr Jackson: You haven't answered the question. What sacrifice are you making?
Hill: Everybody is making sacrifices.
Mr Jackson: Rubbish. If you won't answer questions I can't help it. Your whole attitude is defiance.
The Town Clerk: Have you engaged in any philanthropic or other work for the good of the community?
Hill: No.
Mr Jackson: I don't think this man is treating us with proper respect at all. Look at his attitude.
Councillor Schofield: The other day a conscientious objector was asked if he professed to be a follower of Christ? You profess to be that don't you?
Hill: I don't profess to be anything.
Councillor Schofield: Then I shall not put the question I intended to do.

The man's appeal was unanimously disallowed, one member observing, "Let the authorities deal with him" and another adding, "He has not done anything and he seems proud of it".

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Manchester Appeal Tribunal 6 October 1916
Reported Oldham Chronicle 7 October 1916

Several appeals by Oldham men against decisions of the local Tribunal and by Captain Almond, the Military representative, against Tribunal decisions, were heard at Manchester yesterday afternoon before Judge Mellor KC. …

… Joseph Hill, stripper and grinder (29) single, a conscientious objector, had been sent to combatant service by the Oldham Tribunal and he appealed against the decision. The observation of that tribunal on this was that the members were not satisfied that the man had a bona fide conscientious objection against military service.

Judge Mellor: What are you prepared to do?
Hill: What are the occupations?
Sir James Jones: You ought to have posted yourself up if you have notions of this sort in your head.

The Tribunal, without any further comment gave the man 14 days in which to find some work of national importance away from home.

Judge Mellor: It means personal sacrifice and the doing of some work of national importance.

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Oldham Tribunal Monday 6 November 1916
Reported Oldham Chronicle 7 November 1916

Notice has been received by the Oldham Tribunal from the Manchester Appeals Tribunal giving the decisions of the appeals of two Oldham conscientious objectors, James Hill, tinsmith, of Horsedge-street and Samuel Amey who was employed as a clerk in the office of the Oldham education authority. Hill was granted exemption conditional on doing work on a farm at Hale, Cheshire and Amey similar exemption conditional on working for a Northumberland farmer.

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Two of his brothers, James and Ernest, were also COs.

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Born Buckley, Flintshire 19 March 1887
Died Oldham, 29 March 1944

1911 census
1 Frederick Street, Oldham
Single with parents and siblings
Occ: Cotton cardroom jobber

1939 register :
31 Fisher Street, Oldham
With wife Elsie and possibly 1 child redacted
Occ: Wholesale & retail confectioner

Contributed by Dorothy Bintley