Person:Arthur Sanders (1)

Arthur Sanders (1885-1961) was a Conscientious Objector in both World Wars. He was born in Bookham, Surrey and by 1911 was living in Chester Terrace, Brighton. By the start of the Great War, he had moved to 36 Sandgate Road, Brighton. He worked as a landscape gardener. In early 1917 he was sent to Wormwood Scrubs, west London as a Conscientious Objector to do hard labour for four months. After being conscripted into a non-combatant unit (and refusing to cooperate) he served two further terms of imprisonment at Maidstone Prison, Kent. He appears to have negotiated his release from prison in early 1919. He wrote a memoir about his experiences after the war called 'My Experiences as a Conscientious Objector to War, 1914-1919.' Between the wars, AMS joined the Peace Pledge Union and became Secretary of the Brighton branch of the National Federation of Old Age Pensioners during which time he campaigned for an increase in pensions. At the outbreak of the Second World War AMS was called up to serve in the Home Guard. He objected to being a Fire Warden in a street other than his own as the occupants were out drinking when he felt they should have been at home. The fine that was issued to him for not doing his duty was paid by his daughter. Failure to pay this fine would almost certainly have resulted in another spell in prison. Arthur Sanders continued to live at 36, Sandgate Road, Brighton and worked for the National Association of Old Age Pensioners until his death in 1961.