User:Vernon39/Fred Murfin

Frederick James Murfin (1888 - 24 June 1971)^[1] was a British conscientious objector in World War I, imprisoned and threatened with the death penalty.

Birth and Early years[edit]

Fred Murfin was the youngest of six children of James Murfin (?1858 - 1939) and Eliza, his wife, nee Gore ^[2]. Brought up in Louth, Lincolnshire, he worked as a printer.

At the time the Military Service bill, introducing conscription of single men aged 18 to 41 into military service was passing rapidly through Parliament, transport difficulties meant a lack of work. He moved to Manchester and was influenced by Quakers towards a religious pacifism. By the time the bill became law, he was an active member of the No Conscription Fellowship ^[3] and had decided to refuse any work related to military service or supporting the war effort. He moved to London and became a member of Tottenham Quaker Meeting, where there were two other absolutist COs, Stuart Beavis and Alfred Taylor.

Conscription[edit]

After he was refused exemption by the Military Service Tribunal at Tottenham and also on appeal, he was arrested on 25 May 1916, taken before the Magistrates' Court, and handed over the the military authorities. He wrote a memoir of his experiences in 1965, entitled Prisoners of Peace^[4]

France[edit]

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Winchester[edit]

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Freedom[edit]

<Stub> He married Mavis about 1919. She died in about 1960 ^[2].

Marazion[edit]

In his final years he moved to Marazion, Cornwall, and joined the local Quaker Meeting. He died in 1971 ^[5] ^[2]. There is a bench commemorating Fred Murfin in the burial ground of the Quaker Meeting House.

References[edit]

^ The date of birth is given on the Tottenham Quaker Meeting "Dressed in Simplicity" website. It also incorrectly gives his date of death as 1972. Webpages 1,2, 3, 4, 5
^ ^a ^b ^c Descendants of John Murfin in Murfin Genealogy/Murfin Surname Research
^ No Conscription Fellowship article on Spartacus.]
^ Prisoners of Peace: an account by Fred J Murfin of his experiences as a conscientious objector during the 1914 - 18 war; copies are at Friends House Library, London, Leeds University Library, Liddle Collection and with Cornwall Area Meeting (Quakers); the format is typescript, in two parts, of 15 and 24 single pages, 20.5 x 17 mm, stapled.
^ Obituary in The Pacifist, August 1971; a copy is in the Peace Pledge Union archive.