An exhibition by Jude Hutchen which aims to provoke reflection on the little acknowledged fact that the UK has engaged in almost continuous warfare ever since.
A Colour Chart for Killing
Read more ->
Events
The Poppy Retake
India, Africa, the West Indies, colonialism and recruitment, impacts of war and our ongoing culture of war explored by an exhibition of artistic and educational work. This exhibition confronts our connections with wars as recruitment and their impacts on people who had been colonised.
Who Would Know That Britain Has Been Almost Consistently at War since WW1?
As part of the Lunchtime Lecture series organised by Bristol Libraries visual artist Jude Hutchen will present the ideas behind her current exhibition ‘A Colour Chart for Killing’ at the Central Library’.
This Evil Thing
The play brings together the stories of Bert Brocklesby, a schoolteacher and preacher at his Methodist chapel and Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest philosophers of his time. With the advent of military conscription their worlds are about to be turned upside down.
These Dangerous Women
Two films on women who stood up for peace during and after the First World War: Thursday’s Child; and These Dangerous Women.
The Art and Nature of Conscience
This exhibition explores World War 1 conscientious objectors’ thinking about conscience alongside their words and artwork. It also show-cases contemporary artists’ reflections on these men, including a new piece by Stephen Raw, ‘The Absolutist’s Position’
The Lost Files
The Lost Files is an installation by Al Johnson that explores the experience of individuals who for moral, religious or political reasons refused to participate in World War One.
Making It Home
Film and photographic exhibition. Making it Home is the story of eleven ex-servicemen who returned from the Great War to live and farm on Cleenish Island in Upper Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Conscientious Objector Stories From Around England 1
Three talks: Being a CO in Burton-on-Trent; The Loneliness of Conscience – Herefordshire Conscientious Objectors in WW1; The conscientious objectors in Oxford in 1916.
Internment and internee stories from England and Germany
Three talks on internment in Yorkshire, North East England and Berlin: Time Stood Still: The Internment of Civilians at Lofthouse Park Camp near Wakefield, 1914-18; Time Stood Still: The Internment of Civilians at Lofthouse Park Camp near Wakefield, 1914-18; ‘Hunting the Hun’ – WW1 and the German Communities in the North East of England.
Art and War, Resistance and Recovery
Talks by two of the artists involved in our exhibitions: A Colour Chart for Killing; and The Art of Recovery.
Shot at Dawn Campaign
The campaign to get pardons for the men executed for military offences in World War 1. This unique session brings together a number of the campaigners who worked to get the men executed for military offences during the First World War pardoned in 2006.
Opposition to Conscription in Wales and Ireland
Two talks: England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity; and The cowards and the courageous.
War School
Set against the backdrop of Remembrance the controversial and challenging documentary reveals how, faced with unprecedented opposition to its wars, the British government is using a series of new and targeted strategies to promote support for the military.
Paying for Peace or Paying for War?
War tax resisters Robin Brookes and Diana Warner talk about their campaign, with Lois Bibbings.
England Arise! A Drama
A reading of the play ‘England, Arise!’ a drama telling the story of Arthur Gardiner’s refusal to fight in the First World War on political grounds, inspired by and drawing on Cyril Pearce’s book ‘Comrades In Conscience’.
Bristol Radical History Group Book Launch
Two BRHG books launched: Refusing to Kill: Bristol’s World War I Conscientious Objectors by Remembering the Real World War 1; and Mabel Tothill: Feminist, Socialist, Pacifist.
A Hundred Years Of Opposition To War
WW1’s Hidden Voices
Two critical presentations about the role of India, East Africa, Nigeria and the West Indies in WWI: Cultural Representations of World War One and other wars: how colonies are kept invisible; Colonial realities of WWI: uncovering the involvement and experience of peoples from British colonies.
Mutiny
Tony T presents his documentary ‘Mutiny’ which looks at the British Caribbean experience of the First World War and its legacies, as revealed by the last surviving veterans of the British West Indies Regiment.
Researching Conscientious Objectors
‘Joining up the dots’ between CO projects across the UK . This session with Cyril Pearce will be an opportunity for anyone who has been researching or telling the story of the First World War resisters, locally or internationally, to share their discoveries.
Treatment of War Veterans: Then and Now
Two speakers address the treatment of veterans’ physical and mental needs.: New Limbs For Old; and Hidden Wounds: Veterans with combat-related PTSD;
Commemorating War 1
Two talks: Shot at Dawn. Evolution of a Memorial; and Revisiting the Fallen in Ireland, 1918-2018.
Women Campaigning for Peace in World War 1
Alison Ronan presents two films she has worked on: These Dangerous Women; Women’s Peace Crusade.
Rosie Sleightholme
Folk singer Rosie Sleightholme sings a selection of World War One songs about conscription, politics and war resistance.
Otherstory Puppet Theatre: ‘Taking a Holiday’
A story of struggle in wartime – full of intrigue, escapes, comradeship…and bikes. What does it mean to be a refugee and on the run in your own country? Who will give you a bed for the night, a job… or a means of escape? A table top and shadow puppet show based on the true stories of ordinary people in 1916/17 and the hidden history of the resistance to the war machine in Bristol and elsewhere.
The Red Violinist
A talk illustrated with six musical interludes on Eduard Soermus, an Estonian violinist who lived in Merthyr Tydfil at the end of the First World War but was expelled from Britain in 1919.
Revisiting The Monocled Mutineer with Paul McGann
BBC TV’s ‘The Monocled Mutineer’ star, Paul McGann, in conversation with Lois Bibbings from Remembering the Real World War 1 and the University of Bristol.
Harbottle and Jonas
David Harbottle, and Freya Jonas have reimagined several songs from the WW1 Conscientious Objectors (COs) Songbook. Whilst the words of the songs remain untouched, the duo have composed new vocal melodies and musical arrangements for each piece, breathing new life into the songs but allowing the words to speak as they once did.
Emmerdale’s Conscientious Objector
A showing of one of the Emmerdale 1918 series which looks at the experiences of Yorkshire conscientious objector Alfred Martlew.
Steps Against War: A History Walk With Puppets
Otherstory puppetry will be leading a history walk using the medium of puppetry to tell the untold stories of Bedminster people who resisted the First World War, and who refused to kill.
Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness Conscientious Objectors
Two talks: So British Mormons were also Conscientious Objectors in WWI?; Refusing to bow to the god of war – from Richmond Castle to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The Singapore Mutiny – Film Premier
Documentary revealing how the First World War shaped Gandhi’s rise to prominence in India and the path to independence.
The Campaign to Clear Alice Wheeldon’s Name
Led by Alice’s great-granddaughter, Chloë Mason, this session will look at the campaign to clear the names of Alice Wheeldon, Winne and Alf Mason and looks back at the history of the case.
Women and Opposition To War 1
The first of two talks looking at women’s opposition to World War 1. Two talks: Patriotic Peace Service: German Women against the War; and Looking for Phillis and finding Maud.
Commemoration Panel 2
Three talks examining aspects of the commemoration and remembrance of World War One: The In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, a cultural and transnational museum about WWI; Politics, Piers Morgan and the colour of Poppies; and ‘Remembrance on the Rocks’: Scenes from Canada’s Great War Centenary.
Women and Opposition to War 2
The second of two events looking at the Women who resisted World War One. Two talks: ‘It is up to women to start a crusade for peace!’ Bradford Women’s Humanity League, 1916-18; and ‘Men must fight and women must work’: Women’s Objection to War Work in the First World War.
Conscientious Objector Stories From Around England 2
The second of two events looking at the stories of Conscientious Objector. Three talks: Degrees of Conscience; WW1 Conscientious Objectors – Victims of Militarism?; The conscription of miners, conscientious objectors and Welsh agitators in the Forest of Dean.
Watford’s Quiet Heroes
A documentary telling the stories of some of those who defied the call to arms in World War One.
Commemoration Through Drama
Two plays. Spaniel In The Works. ‘War In Mind’ by John Bassett, Spaniel In The Works Theatre Company and ‘Protestors for Peace: A Play for Remembrance Week November 2018’.
Student Voices after The Great War
Between 1914 and 1918, young people fought and fell on the battlefield in unprecedented numbers. This event captures the voices of those who survived the conflict and returned to study at college or university, supported by the first government grants for higher education. While mourning the fallen, this generation built a student movement that promoted internationalist and pacifist ideas, including through founding the National Union of Students (NUS) in 1922.
The Last Clarion House
A film about the Nelson Independent Labour Party Clarion House and its role in the struggles of suffragettes and conscientious objectors.
Conscience Panel
Three talks examining aspects of conscientious objectors in the First World War.
Closing speech by Bruce Kent (CND)
The Commemoration, Conflict & Conscience festival weekend will be closed by Bruce Kent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).