War and Peace

Rachel MacGregor, Digital Preservation Officer at the MRC, shares her recent discovery of the papers of Rowland Barrett and their varied and striking contents.

I came across the papers of Rowland Barrett whilst preparing a social media post to commemorate International Conscientious Objectors Day and was first of all intrigued that so little was known about this fascinating, if (possibly reading between the lines here) slightly eccentric man, who in the catalogue entry we have for him is described as “socialist, upholsterer and journalist”, occupations for which socialism was lifelong and upholstering and journalism he dipped in and out of, as well as campaigning on a very wide number of issues, vegetarianism and running a small holding and holiday camp. What little information we have on him is drawn from an article written by a former archivist at the Modern Records Centre and it would be wonderful if someone had the chance to do a bit more digging and reconstruct this. The collection of his papers represents the most dangerous kind of rabbit warren that an archivist is likely to face – subjects as varied as spelling reform, furniture history, bee keeping and numerous dabblings in local politics, including getting arrested on a charge of obstruction for holding Independent Labour Party meetings in Nuneaton marketplace.

However as I mentioned my particular interest was caught by this startling image of him, standing in his prison cell in Wakefield, where he had been imprisoned for being a conscientious objector during World War One.

Photograph of Barrett in his cell, 15 Oct 1917

Document Reference: MSS.83/3/PR/17

We can make out his “Home Office clothes” as he describes it on the reverse of the photograph and his fixed stare at the camera. The original of the photograph measures only a few centimetres across so it was only when we digitised and could zoom in on the detail that we could make out all the details of the candlestick in the room and the prints on the wall. It also took me quite a while to realise that the bucket at his feet was not, in fact, his cell “facilities” but is a bucket of whitewash, which he has also liberally coated his “Home Office” trousers in. In fact this is specifically referred to in a humorous poem which Barrett apparently wrote (and was recited by one Lindsay) which can be read in its entirety here but includes the lines:

“How did I get these views sir?

'Twas when we were gay young sparks,

That someone lent me a book, sir;

A book by the great Karl Marx.

They gave me a couple of years, sir,

In Scrubbs, where I'd time to reflect

On my crime of refusing to drill, sir,

Or something of similar effect.

And I got let out on the Scheme, sir,

One spring morn as from death newly risen,

To find that my national job, sir

Was whitewashing a West Riding prison.

Also digitised from his papers is document entitled “A Humble Petition to the Cook-House Controllers, Dictators of our Dietetic Destinies, and Dispensers of Dinner-Time Delectables at the Wakefield Work-and-Sleep Centre in the year of disgrace, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventeen.” Which calls for the serving of cocoa in addition to tea at tea-time:

“We make this supplication so that those comrades among us who do not like tea at any time; or who are of opinion that it cannot be prepared in large quantities to the best advantage; or who are advised medically to avoid tea; or who believe tea to be a slow poison, bad for the heart, a constipative and a nerve destroyer, may refrain from that beverage, without thereby depriving themselves of Liquid Refreshment at the evening meal.” This demand in signed by 200 names (including Barrett’s in whose handwriting this is). My particular favourite of the undersigned is Ernest Shepheard, who adds “I want tea, but I want those who want cocoa to have cocoa”. True comradely attitude! You can explore more about conscientious objectors and World War I in our online First World War collection.

I was further intrigued to see that amongst Barrett’s papers he had also kept the buttons from his uniform and his prisoner number which identified him.

Buttons and numbered tag from prison uniform, c1917

Reference Number: MSS.83/3/PR/21

Archives contain relatively few artefacts, mainly because in general, archive collections focus on the written, illustrated or spoken information conveyed in documentary form. This can be handwritten, drawn, photographed, printed or recorded on a wide variety of media but in general artefacts, objects which tell a story of material culture, more properly belong in a museum. However on occasions archive collections will contain artefacts such as these included amongst personal papers and the archivist will not remove them from their context. Where they do exist, like here, they can bring a real sense of immediacy to a collection, lifting them off the page they are documented in and out into the physical world.

You can find more of Rowland Barrett’s papers digitised here and the images of him and the buttons and tags in the catalogue of his papers.