WWII Local Tribunal Application Conscientious Objector 1940 S. J. Kinch, Acton

This document is fully filled in and is an 'Application To Local Tribunal by a Person Provisionally Registered in the Register of Conscientious Objectors.' It is dated 1st March 1940 and is the application of Stanley James Kinch, 2, Hereford Road, Acton, W.3. to be exempted from military service during the Second World War. The document consists of two, double-sided pages, and contains the grounds in a full statement on which the appellant wished to be exempted plus, verification by a second witness that what Kinch was saying was what he had always truly believed.

Kinch: "I conscientiously object to war and conscription because I try to live according to god's will...I would let a burglar shot me rather than shoot him...You should not shoot gangsters...Don't believe in capital punishment...We should allow them to bomb...I renounce war...Army should not resist."

The witness Rev. John Colesworth, Muswell Hill Methodist Church, Colney Hatch Lane, N.10. stated during the Tribunal on 5th July 1940 that: "I can vouch for the fact that he held his conscientious objection to military service long before the war...I do believe in Stanley Kinch's honesty of purpose."

The Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant conscientiously objected to military service, and ordered him to carry out agricultural or forestry or full time A.R.P. work. A rare and historical document.