Conscientious Objection and Military Executions in World War I, 1914–1918

Mass mobilisation during World War I made military service a defining obligation. In Britain, conscription from 1916 recognised conscientious objection in law, but tribunals frequently imposed non-combatant work, civilian service or imprisonment, and public opinion often treated refusal as cowardice.

Within the armed forces, soldiers could be court-martialled for desertion, disobedience and related offences. British and Commonwealth forces executed more than three hundred soldiers, though the circumstances ranged from deliberate absence to trauma that was poorly understood at the time.

Fiction can bring together the legal category of conscientious objection and the harsher discipline imposed on serving soldiers. The Absolutist uses a fictional soldier’s total refusal of military cooperation to examine courage, sexuality, betrayal and the wartime policing of masculine duty.