The ‘Conchie Corps’: Conflict, Compromise and Conscientious Objection in the British Army, 1940–1945

During the Second World War the distinct line between civilian and combatant was blurred to an extent never seen before in Britain. The British populace faced the Luftwaffe’s bombs. The civilian population took on Civil Defence duties fighting fires and tackling the injuries caused by air raids, facing the horrors of warfare historically reserved for the military. In total, 1.5 million civilian men and women in the Home Guard pledged to defend Britain with arms in the event of invasion. Yet, for much of the war the majority of Britain’s armed forces were stationed in Britain fighting a defensive war. Moreover, only a quarter of the British armed services saw active combat. The Non-Combatant Corps (NCC), the focus of this article, was an extreme example of that blurred line. The men who served within it were in a unique position: conscientious objectors (COs) conscripted to serve within the Army. Men in uniform, in wartime society, epitomized idealized masculinity. Yet these conscientious objectors refused to bear arms and in doing so refused to conform to that idealized masculine role. This article examines the experiences of these objectors in uniform.