Conclusion

There were six known Magdalen conscientious objectors, four of whom appeared before the Oxford Local Military Service Tribunal with two of these appearing before the Oxfordshire Military Service Appeals Tribunal. There may have been more, but probably few, if any, and given the destruction of most Tribunal records and the fact that many local papers did not name those appearing before the Tribunals, we shall probably never know. We have found no more on the Pearce Register of Conscientious Objectors, although as Pearce says this is not necessarily complete because of the difficulties cited above.

Rae gives a figure of 16,500 conscientious objectors – who represent 0.33 per cent of the number of men recruited voluntarily and compulsorily during the war. The six Magdalen conscientious objectors out of a total of just under 1,000 Magdalen men who served in the Armed Forces represent about 0.6%. Or in other words, the attitude of Magdalen men to the war was not that different from the nation as a whole.

There were two known pacifists who might well have been conscientious objectors had the situation arisen. One, Bunting, lived abroad, the other, De La Warr, joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve mine-sweepers as a non-combatant before he was old enough to be conscripted.

One other, Goodyear, may have been a pacifist but he was killed in action while serving as a non-combatant before conscription was introduced.

The remainder of the Magdalen men who were required to serve with the Colours under the Military Acts of 1916 and 1918 and did not do so seem, in most cases, to have had good, non-conscientious reasons for not doing so, and with the exception of Goodyear, there is evidence to suppose that the others who served in non-combatant units like the Royal Army Medical Corps or the Young Men’s Christian Association were not pacifists.

Although a small number of young men did not serve, and we have been unable to discover what they did during the war, there is no evidence that they refused to do so, and as, in many cases, other members of the family did serve, the most likely explanation is that they were unfit.