Refrain

Richmond Castle, North Yorkshire
7th – 9th April 2017
Just over 100 years ago, at Richmond Castle, North Yorkshire, sixteen conscientious objectors were detained in the 19th century cell block. Before they were sent to France to be court-martialed, the ‘Richmond Sixteen’ covered the cell walls with the words and drawings which inspired hundreds of other subsequent marks of resistance in WWI and WWII.

St. Helens, Merseyside
20th – 21st May 2017
St Helens was the home of school teacher, Ernest Everett who was arrested due to his refusal to undertake combative service in 1916. He was court-martialled and sentenced to two years’ hard labour, the first conscientious objector to receive such a sentence. Over the next few years, he was sentenced seven more times. He died around 1920, after being ostracized by the community and put in grueling prisons for his views. In REFRAIN, Everett’s story, symbolic of many more cases of this kind, was given voice once again.

Newhaven Fort, East Sussex
9th – 11th June 2017
Newhaven Fort is the last of a long series of defences built on the cliffs overlooking Seaford Bay, the ramparts and extensive tunnel network holding 150 years of history. During the First World War, Newhaven became one of the major supply ports to the Western Front and many of the 900 Conscientious Objectors based at the nearby non combatant camps were either put to work on the road improvements between Seaford and Newhaven, or set to work at the docks, handling food supplies. Following a workers’ strike COs were ordered to handle munitions, and those who refused to comply were threatened with execution for mutiny, sent to a camp at Seaford and court martialled at Newhaven Fort.