For our October talk, Andrew Greaves will retrace his grandfather’s journey during and after the First World War. He was a founder member of The Friends Ambulance Unit, a pioneering humanitarian organisation active on the Western Front.
He will contrast his grandfather’s story with Corder Catchpool’s very different experience as a prisoner of conscience back in England.
We’ll learn too about other conscientious objectors from the north-east of England, notably the group known as the Harwich Frenchmen, the first non-combatants to be sentenced to death in WW1 for refusing to take up arms, and whose courageous personal witness led to the eventual recognition of conscientious objection to war as an internationally-accepted human right throughout the world.
Andrew is a former schoolteacher and a member of Hexham Quaker Meeting, who lives in rural Northumberland.
The talk will take place on Wednesday 25 October 2017 at The Corner House, Heaton Road NE6 5RP at 7.30pm (Doors open at 7.00pm. You are advised to take your seat by 7.15pm). Please book your place by contacting maria@heatonhistorygroup.org / 07443 594154. Until 27 July booking will be open to Heaton History Group members only.
