Author: jeremyclarke

The blue plaque for Walter Ayles will be unveiled on Sunday April 17^th – the centenary of the date that Ayles was first arrested. Please put this date in your diary. The unveiling will take place from 3.30pm at the house where lived with his wife Bertha in Station Road, Ashley Down. Generous donations have enabled us to raise over £600 to pay for the plaque. Full details will be circulated nearer the date. Come along and help us honour all those in Bristol who bravely opposed the war. Tell your friends.

Walter Ayles was Bristol’s most prominent opponent of World War 1. He was a member of the Independent Labour Party and city councillor for Easton from 1912. When war was declared in 1914 he was the only councillor to vote against a motion offering “whole hearted support” for the war. He became a national executive member of the No-Conscription Fellowship.

In April 1916, when conscription was introduced, Ayles and others were arrested and imprisoned for distributing a ‘Repeal the Act’ pamphlet. On his release he was immediately conscripted and imprisoned until February 1919 for refusing to accept military service. In 1923 he was elected as Labour MP for Bristol North.

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Last spring, based on documents in the Central Library, we published details of 47 men from Bristol who were imprisoned as conscientious objectors during World War 1. For moral, religious or political reasons they refused to take part in the war. Many people contacted us having seen these names and provided us with more information about these men or other conscientious objectors.

Nationally, Cyril Pearce, has been working for many years to compile a database of conscientious objectors. To date he has collated information about over 17000 men. We have been able to access this data and can now publish details of 350 men from Bristol and the surrounding area who saw themselves as conscientious objectors. Many were subjected to harsh conditions in prison. After the war many found it difficult to return to their jobs. Others agreed to serve in non-combatant roles like the Friends’ Ambulance Service. All paid a great price for having the courage to stand up for their principles.

2016 is the centenary of the introduction of conscription; the centenary of the imprisonment of the first of these men. We will be holding a number of events to mark this over the coming months. Now we have these 350 names we want to find out as much as possible about these men and their families. Please follow the links and help us if you can.

For more information email rememberingrealww1@gmail.com

Support for and interest in the blue plaque for Walter Ayles is growing. (See full details here.) Towards the end of his life Ayles was MP for Hayes in West London. The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, who is MP for Hayes and Harlington has sent a letter of support.

This is great news.

It is an honour to represent the constituency that Walter once served with such distinction.

He was a courageous socialist and peace campaigner, who made such a contribution to our community.

You may know that we have a local road named after him, Ayles Road, near to Bevan Road, Cripps Green, Attlee Road, Henderson Avenue, and Owen Road.

I have Walter’s photograph portrait in my room in my constituency office, where he looks benignly down on my constituents and me during my advice sessions and meetings.

I hope that I can live up to being half of the socialist and peace promoter that he so finely was.

I will do all I can to join you and I will seek a donation from our CLP and send down a contribution from myself.

Best wishes,

John

If you haven’t made a donation towards the cost of the plaque yet and are able to do so please make a cheque out to ‘Bristol Radical History Group’ write ‘Ayles Plaque’ on the back – and send it to:

Jeremy Clarke, 23 Monmouth Road, Bristol, BS7 8LF

For  more information email rememberingrealww1@gmail.com

“If I believed in the efficacy of slaughter to remedy evils, I would long ago have advocated the killing of those who, year after year, have been responsible for the sweated, the starved and the slummed. I know, however in my heart of hearts that slaughter being wrong, is no remedy.”

 Bristol Civic Society has approved the erection of a blue plaque on Walter Ayles’ house in Station Road, Ashley Down. Ayles was Bristol’s most prominent opponent of World War 1. The wording on the plaque will be 

Walter Ayles
1879-1953
Labour councillor and Bristol MP, imprisoned for opposition to the First World War
Lived here 1911-1928

Over £500 has to be raised to pay for the plaque. If you would like to make a donation, please make a cheque out to ‘Bristol Radical History Group’ – write ‘Ayles Plaque’ on the back – and send it to:

Jeremy Clarke, 23 Monmouth Road, Bristol, BS7 8LF

The plaque will be unveiled in spring 2016. Although it will have Walter Ayles’ name on it, the intention is that it should honour all those who bravely opposed the war.

Walter Ayles was born in Lambeth in 1879, the son of a railway porter. Apprenticed to a railway engineering works, he refused to blackleg during a strike when he was 18 and gave his notice. Eventually he got work as an engineer in Birmingham and became the district secretary to the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and a member of the Independent Labour Party.

In 1910 he moved to Bristol to take up the job of full time secretary to the Bristol ILP. Elected to Bristol City Council in 1912, he published “Bristol’s Next Step” in the same year. It argued that transport, gas and water “must not be entrusted to private individuals any longer, but must be placed in the hands of the people themselves.”

When war was declared in 1914, he became a founder member of the No Conscription Fellowship and was the only member of Bristol City Council to vote against a motion offering “whole hearted support” for the war. When conscription was introduced in 1916, he was imprisoned for 61 days for distributing a ‘Repeal the Act’ pamphlet.

Soon after his release, he was summoned before the Bristol Military Service tribunal where he delivered the words quoted above. When he refused the instruction to take non-combatant service, he was arrested and remained in prison for three years. ILP pamphlets quoted him as saying “Because horrible outrages and ghastly crimes have been committed by others, that is no reason why I too should kill and destroy…I can only help to prevent them by a refusal to join in war. Hate cannot be destroyed by hate. It can only be transformed by love.”

Ayles attempted to stand for Parliament in the 1918 election but was still in prison then. Finally freed in 1919, he was selected as the Labour candidate for Bristol North and won the seat in the election of 1923. He became a Quaker, published “The Hell of Unemployment” and, after losing his seat in the election of 1924, won it back in 1929 holding it until 1931.

He served as the secretary of the No War Movement for a short time and eventually returned to Parliament in 1945 as the M.P. for Southall, finally moving to the constituency of Hayes and Harlington in 1950. He resigned his seat in 1953 and died in the same year aged 74.

For more information email rememberingrealww1@gmail.com

As World War 1 went on, workers in many industries were effected by the government’s desperate attempts to conscript more and more men into the army. Locally, one group of workers who strongly objected to their treatment by the government were the coal miners in the Forest Of Dean. They were also severely critical of part played by their local union leadership in sending men to the front. In August 1917 the miners passed three resolutions.

“That we, the Forest of Dean Miners, enter our most emphatic protest against the agent for committing us to the comb-out scheme before first of all ascertaining the view of the miners of the Forest of Dean”.

“That we, the Forest of Dean miners, enter our most emphatic protest against the comb-out scheme which we entirely repudiate, having regard to the fact that we were never consulted.”

“That we, the Forest of Dean miners, call upon the various Trade Unions of this country to take the necessary steps with the view to ascertaining the views of the workers of all countries to negotiate an immediate an honourable peace”.

Bristol Radical History Group have published a book by Ian Wright entitled ‘Coal On One Hand, Men On The Other – The Forest of Dean Miners’ Association and the First World War 1910 – 1920‘ looking at these events. A valuable read for anyone interested in the role of workers in opposing the war.

For more details (including where to buy) follow this link

 

During World War 1, just as in other parts of the country, a significant minority of women and men in Bristol took part in a peace movement. They demanded the democratic control of foreign policy, a negotiated peace and a just, non-punitive settlement at the end of the conflict. They also joined with the wider labour movement to oppose conscription. The nature of this anti-war movement, its leadership and the alliances made varied from city to city. In Bristol it was socialists of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) who provided much of the energy and personnel for the campaign.

Bristol Radical History Group has recently published a pamphlet ‘Bristol Independent Labour Party – Men, Women & The Opposition To War‘ by June Hannam exploring the activities and ideas of the women and men of the ILP in Bristol, including Walter Ayles, Annie Townley and Mabel Tothill as they organised against the war. This fascinating pamphlet is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of World War 1 in Bristol.

For more information (including how to buy a copy) follow this link.

An earlier posting covered some of the alternative views of Gallipolli. Following that, Bristol Radical History Group published on their website an article Gallipolli & Bristol.This gives more details about the exoperience of men of the 7^th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment during their months in the Dardenelles. Many of these men were from Bristol and surrounding areas.

You can read the article here

For more information email rememberingrealww1@gmail.com