WHILE we commemorate the bravery of the millions of men who fought in World War One, an often untold story is the bravery of those who didn’t.

Ulverston resident Pat Monnypenny’s father and uncle were both imprisoned during the War for being conscientious objectors (COs) – men who refused to fight on the grounds of conscience and/or religion.

Mrs Moneypenny’s father, Harold Wild, of Manchester, was 20-years-old in 1916 when conscription came into force.

A devout Methodist, he had intended on becoming a minister, but was ‘thrown out’ after preaching against the war in his first sermon.

Mr Wild was an absolutist, and wrote in his diary that he would rather be ‘imprisoned or shot’ before doing any work to help the war effort.

In an entry dated January 12, 1916, he wrote, “I come to the conclusion now that instead of doing as I had started – revising all my Matric Subjects with the hope of restarting definite study again at the end of March, I must face conscription.

“The Government Bill is apparently going to swim through the House and I must be true to my conscience.

“I am determined to be imprisoned or shot before I will take up Munition Work or Mine Sweeping or any work distinctly Military under the Military Authorities.”

After deliberately ignoring an instruction to attend Manchester Town Hall on June 2 he was charged as a ‘deserter’ and spent a night in the Town Hall Cell on June 23.

He was arrested again the next day when a Peace meeting he attended was raided by police who took him and around a dozen others to Ashton Barracks Guard Room under Military Escort.

After two days there he was examined by doctors and an army Major who declared him physically unfit for service as he was born with a dislocated hip and had one leg five inches shorter than the other.

Mr Wild spent the rest of the war working with Quakers and the Peace movement – his working life was disrupted as he was asked to resign from one job for being a CO, and refused to the next one he was offered after finding out it was connected to the War Effort.

“There was a lot of opposition to what he was doing,” said Mrs Moneypenny. People thought they were cowards but actually it was a brave thing to do – I’m very proud.

“He served many years in the Peak and Northern Footpaths Presentation Society, eventually as its secretary.

“When he died in 1979 a wonderful tribute to him by Dr Head, the leader of the society described him as ‘a man of uncompromising integrity’ and so he was.”

In Britain, 16,000 people asked for CO status during WWI but many were suffered lengthy prison terms, including solitary confinement and bread and water diets.

Mr Wild’s brother-in-law – Mrs Moneypenny’s uncle – Arnold Whipp was also a CO, who was sentenced to two years hard labour at Wormwood Scrubs in June 1916.

Mrs Moneypenny and her sister Dorothy recently commemorated their father and uncle by attending a Conscientious Objectors’ ceremony in Tavistock Square London.

She said COs are an aspect of the War that is often ignored, adding, “I’m surprised it hasn’t had more coverage because there are a lot of people in this country who are against fighting, just look at the opposition to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”