War objectors' graffiti must be saved, says English Heritage
Fragile walls at Richmond Castle bear rare first-hand testimonial from men who refused to serve in first world war
Maev Kennedy
Friday 13 May 2016 02.00 EDT
Last modified on Friday 13 May 2016 07.01 EDT
In 1916 a conscientious objector, condemned by a tribunal for refusing to serve in the first world war, took up a pencil and very neatly explained his plight on the whitewashed wall of his cell in Richmond Castle in Yorkshire.
“‘I Percy F Goldsbrough of Mirfield was brought up from Pontefract on Friday August 11 1916 and put in this cell for refusing to be made into a soldier,” he wrote.
English Heritage, which now cares for the beautiful medieval castle, will launch a project on Friday to record, research and preserve the fragile walls that became a unique archive of rare first-hand testimonial from men who refused to join the war, as well as thousands of other inscriptions added later.
Kevin Booth, an archaeologist who is leading the project, groaned as he entered a cell with a shower of fresh white paint flakes on the floor. The first urgent challenge is to stop leaks in the stone roof above, through which water has been seeping for 150 years. “It is absolutely astonishing that so many of these have survived for a century, but they are now as fragile as cobwebs – this is the last last chance to save, if we can, or at least record them,” he said.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/13/first-world-war-objectors-graffiti-project-richmond-castleD
I salute you, Percy F Goldsbrough.
