WWI Conscientious Objector Graffiti At Richmond Castle Pictured, As 'Important Record' To Be Preserved

Pictures of "delicate" graffiti drawn in pencil by conscientious objectors held in Richmond Castle during the First World War have been revealed in a series of pictures by English Heritage, which will preserve the art.

In May 1916, 16 men - mainly from the north of England- were incarcerated in cells at the 19th-century North Yorkshire castle before they were transported to France to face court martial and a possible firing squad.

The graffiti, scratched on to cell walls, features pencil drawings and inscriptions, including slogans, poetry, portraits of loved ones and even a few examples of "dark humour", according to English Heritage. 

The prisoners, known as the Richmond Sixteen, included a Sunderland footballer, a clerk at the Rowntree's chocolate factory in York, a bookseller from Ely and men of faith.

“You might just as well try to dry a floor by throwing water on it, as try to end this war by fighting,” Richard Lewis Barry, a socialist who worked in a lace manufacturing factory in Derbyshire, wrote on one wall. 

English Heritage will use a £365,400 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to save the graffiti from "crumbling into oblivion". The work, part of its "Voices of Rebellion project", will allow public access to the cells for the first time in more than 30 years. 

Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s Chief Executive, said: “These graffiti are an important record of the voices of dissent during the First World War. It is remarkable that these delicate drawings and writings have survived for 100 years.

"Now we can ensure that they survive for the next century and that the stories they tell are not lost.”

Mavor added that high levels of moisture and damp meant the layers of lime wash and plaster on the walls were crumbling and flaking off.

Sunderland centre-forward Norman Gaudie, a Quaker, was one of the men held at Richmond Castle before being shipped to France to face court-martial and the threat of firing squad.

His daughter-in-law, Marjorie Gaudie, said: "It is important to remember men like Norman. They were courageous men.

"He acted from the deepest conviction that all life is sacred. He knew it was wrong to take a life and so he refused to fight.

"He was prepared to die for his belief and that took immense courage," she added.

Marjorie Gaudie, daughter-in-law of Norman Gaudie, centre forward for Sunderland FC and one of the Richmond Sixteen, said: “On the eve of Conscientious Objectors’ day it is important to remember men like my father-in-law, Norman Gaudie.

"They were courageous men. He acted from the deepest conviction that all life is sacred. He knew it was wrong to take a life and so he refused to fight.

"He was prepared to die for his belief and that took immense courage.”

As well as the graffiti of the Richmond Sixteen, the walls of the castle are covered in thousands more drawings, etchings and inscriptions from the first half of the 20th century, from the First World War to the Cold War, English Heritage said. 

For the first time, a full inventory of all the graffiti will be compiled to give a deeper insight into all those who spent time within the walls. 

On 29 May 1916, the Richmond Sixteen were taken from their cells and sent with other conscientious objectors to Henriville military camp, near Boulogne in France.

The men were given 24 hours to consider if they would follow orders or risk being shot for continuing in their disobedience. Soon after the men were ordered to help unload war supplies, they refused and were sent for court-martial.

In the meantime, however, news that the men from Richmond were going to be sent to France had leaked out and Arthur Rowntree, MP for York and a Quaker, took up their case at the highest level and was soon calling for their release.

On 24 June 1916, in a dramatic scene, the court-martial passed a sentence of death but this was immediately commuted to 10 years of hard labour.

One of the conscientious objectors later wrote, “We came to realise that a great, perhaps decisive victory had been gained. Once and for all, we hoped the government had been brought to face the question of its ultimate treatment of COs.”