A Conscientious Objector's Story

Samuel John Marshall Denison (John) was at university during the first three years of WW2, during which time he became a conscientious objector. He graduated in maths and engineering in May 1942, and worked at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, carrying orthopaedic patients up several flights of stairs, often with both their legs in plaster. He joined the FAU (Friends' Ambulance Unit, a volunteer ambulance service founded by the Quakers*) in November 1942 and, after a preliminary FAU introductory course at Northfield, Birmingham, he became a ward orderly at Mile End Hospital in London where he underwent some medical training. He lived on the top floor, patients having been evacuated to the lower floors because of the risk of fire/bombing, whereas the young FAU orderlies, being able-bodied, could get away and also help to put out fires.

Whilst still living at Mile End Hospital, he attended a 6-week mechanics course at Hackney Technical College. That course, plus his engineering training and knowledge gained through his family's haulage business, led to his being sent as an instructor on the electrical systems of vehicles for drivers' and mechanics' courses at Failand, near Bristol.

The course was held in a large house occupied by a Mr Tanner, his wife, and daughter-in-law. Mr Tanner was head of a firm in Bristol. He had turned part of his house over for the drivers and mechanics courses after his son, on an FAU mission to South Africa, was killed when the boat he was travelling in was torpedoed. The family lived in one wing, and the rest of their house was turned over to the courses. (The FAU cook subsequently became the owner/chef at the famous "Hole In The Wall" Restaurant in Bath, so the food was excellent.)

After D-Day, John (then known by his first name, Sam, as there was another John Denison within the FAU) joined the Friends' Group in Paris to provide relief in the form of food and other essential supplies to civilians in France. In January 1945, they crossed the Channel on landing craft, driving kitchen wagons to Paris, where he was appointed "Chef de Gare" (station chief) and coordinated trips and oversaw the repair of vehicles. He and four others were flown to Marseilles to take delivery of ex-American army trucks. They then drove these back to Paris, which took several days. Some of these lorries became the main transport facility of the Society of Friends in Paris.

He and three others were subsequently sent with ex-British Army ambulances to Coutances, in Normandy, the prefecture (departmental administrative centre) in St Lo having been relocated there from St Lo, where it had been totally destroyed.

These former ambulances were used for deliveries and were very basic: the driver was not separated from the rear, and there were benches down either side. He stayed in Coutances, undertaking return trips to Paris, until he was "demobbed" in 1947 after the required five years' service.

I understand that all these operations in France were part of an initiative called "American Relief for France."

*The Quakers (whose full name is The Religious Society of Friends) are pacifists and had formed the FAU during the First World War. It re-formed at the outbreak of WW2 to provide opportunities for active service for conscientious objectors.