Local author: Princetown & the Conscientious Objectors of WW1 by Pip Barker
Princetown & the Conscientious Objectors of WW1 by Pip Barker
Over 16,000 men refused to fight in World War One and became known as Conscientious Objectors. Their initial incarceration in prison was deemed unsuitable for many and they were then sent to work centres to be engaged on work of national importance. One such work centre was in the village of Princetown, Devon - home of the notorious Dartmoor prison. This book explores its change of purpose to that of Dartmoor Work Centre, and the daily life, type of work, and health of COs held there. It also looks at the impact of their arrival on the local community and the attitudes of the village residents towards them when the COs ventured into the local environs. This factual account, well documented with source quotes, offers an insight into the lives of the Dartmoor Work Centre inhabitants at that time in Princetown, corroborated by the CO’s own written work and accounts, government legislation, staff views, and postcards from the author’s own collection. It finishes by examining what happened to these men at the end of the war and their eventual release.
Available for £8.99 at Princetown National Park Centre, Princetown Prison Museum, www.austinmacauley.com, WHSmith, Waterstones & Amazon
How Pip came to write this book
I have always been interested in history and wanted to teach from an early age. I managed to become a teacher, but decided to study maths instead of history and taught in a comprehensive school. Eventually I took a change of career and trained as a social worker, ending up as an inspector for the Quality Care Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of all health and social care services in England.
My interest in Princetown and the prison started whilst researching my family tree, when I discovered that my great-grandfather had been a prison officer at Dartmoor Prison and that my grandmother was actually born in Princetown. My wife and I visited Princetown whilst on holiday and returned several times after that. Our love of the area was such that we moved here from Sussex just over seven years ago. Even before moving, I began collecting everything to do with both the village and the prison. I now have over 1000 postcards of this area, plus books, china, medals, ephemera etc. I worked as a volunteer and later as a member of staff in the prison museum, becoming archivist and family historian soon after. With the help of the curator, we were able to rescue journals and records from cardboard boxes in a prison store room. One that drew my interest in particular was the journal of the medical officer during the 1917-1919 CO occupation of the prison. In his journal he described life as he saw it, while looking after up to 1700 men who were incarcerated in the prison.
As a result of my huge interest in the subject of Dartmoor Prison and the local area I have given a number of talks to groups such as Mensa, Probus, WI and University of the Third age. I was also involved in a BBC programme ‘Walks of Life’ presented by J B Gill, in which I introduced him to the history of the pathway built by the COs, known locally as ‘the road to nowhere’. All of this encouraged me to write this book which I hope will fill some of the gaps in the history of COs at Dartmoor Prison and their place in the wider history of COs in WW1.