| 100313 | Prisoners of War. The following information comes from a clipping from Messenger 23, 1977, entitled "They Stood For Principle", by R D Vine, editor.
"Our historic pictures this time were supplied by Pastor Jack Howard, veteren Church administrator, now retired, and Brother Charles Meredith, retired maintenace engineer of the Stanborough Hydro, and son of the late W. H. Meredith, one-time president of the British Union Conference. All in the pictures are Dartmoor prisoners. All are SDAs. What went wrong? A Clue is the fact that it was wartime - about 1917. Hellenist classical scholar Sir Richard Livingstone (b. 1880), one-time president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, noted with regret the plummeting standards of society. 'When I was young,' he wrote, 'there were still moral fences. Admittedly, they did not always prevent trespass; but at least we knew the fences were there. Since then, most of the fences have gone.' Certainly we are well aware of the general move away from the idea that moral standards can be regarded as permanent. We are in the age of siguationalism. It is claimed that the 'situation' determines what is right or wrong in human behaviour. The young men in our pictures - like their millions of fellow-Adventists - knew otherwise. Right is right and wrong is wrong, no matter what. World War I - ' The War to End Wars' - provided 'situations' which severely tested the moral stamina of Adventist young men who were conscripted into the Army. Admittedly, our country's military prospects seemed dismally bleak around 1917, so it was understandable that the moral scruples of conscientious objectors evoked hostility despite the fact that they were willing to engage in bomb disposal or sea-mine disposal or anything else to save life. Not tolerated was their moral objection to killing and - cause of greater contempt - their adherance to the Fourth Commandment by refusing to to do unnecessary work on the Sabbath, and also their refusal to load ammunition. Our young men preferred imprisonment to compromise. Hence our pictures - taken in the grounds of the famous prison in England's bleakest area - Devon's Dartmoor. They include well-known names. Many are still with us today. Incidentally, their stand for truth paved the way for an official by top authority of SDA principles. Identifications of the smaller group are (back row from left): Fred Cooper, Albert Pond, Walter Marson, Ron Andrews, Claude Blenco, ?, Rutherford. (Front row): Davies, ?, Jack Howard (later one of our most successful soul-winning evangelists), and Hector Bull (now a retired pastor in Watford but still involved in the Lord's service)." | | Stanborough Press - photographic archive | 59k
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