Medical officer’s journal, 1917–1919

Apart from a hospital register, this is the only document that names the COs

Dartmoor Prison’s first inmates – Frenchmen who were captured during the Napoleonic Wars – arrived in 1809, and the institution has seen a great deal of change since then. One little-known episode was when the prison was used to hold conscientious objectors (COs) who refused to fight in the First World War. Some objected on moral grounds, others because of their religious beliefs. COs were initially housed in military