Mapping Dissent: Conscientious Objectors in Northern England during the First World War

Abstract

The men who refused to fight for King and Country in the First World War have now been identified and placed in their home communities by a Register of British Conscientious Objectors. Doing that has exposed the geography of that dissent and has helped map popular attitudes to the war more closely than hitherto. With an explanatory text are tables of Conscientious Objectors (COs) in the eight counties of Northern England—Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and the Yorkshire Ridings. Each table sets out the numbers of COs listed in the Register arranged by local government areas and calculates a CO Index to indicate the proportion of COs among those eligible to serve. Interpreting and comparing that data helps create new insights into the hugely diverse wartime politics of the Northern Counties.