Merfyn Turner

In 1940, a twenty-five year old Welshman was imprisoned at a tribunal in Aberystwyth to three months of hard labor for his stance as a conscientious objector. His name was Merfyn Turner. Although the majority of conscientious objectors in World War II agreed to do any non-combatant work, Merfyn Turner ‘refused to accept any orders from the court, on grounds of conscience.’ According to his friend Tilsli, he argued his own case in a ‘determined and intransigent’ manner, quoting the words of Luther “Here I stand: I can do no other.” His close friend, Dyfnallt Morgan, also appeared before a tribunal in Aberystwyth in 1940, and decided to join one of the Peace Pledge Union Service Units in Wales. In this article, I will be mentioning the contrasting experiences of two friends as conscientious objectors, one in Swansea prison and the other as far overseas as rural China

Merfyn Turner: In his book A Pretty Sort of Prision, Merfyn Turner describes seeing a prisoner for the first time on the way to school when he was ten years old. Unfortunately, this man had been marched in handcuffs through the main street of the town to the magistrates’ court. Turner went through the same degrading experience in Aberystwyth: ‘That my offence was only a matter of refusing to join the Forces…did nothing to lessen the pain of public parade.’ After arriving at the prison on a cold, wintry night, he was further degraded by being ordered to undress, stand naked on the slate floor and wash himself. After wearing his prison uniform, he was marched to stand with other new inmates and to await an examination from the doctor. He was in a state of deep emotional shock for the first two weeks. He was smoking heavily before arriving, but lost his bad taste for tobacco completely. The bad taste returned as he became accustomed to the prison rules and conditions; some harsh ones, which he often broke by smoking more than the ration permitted by the prison authorities. He learned quickly that breaking such red tape was the only way to get his fellow inmates to accept him anyway

Prison experiences:

Turner listed the harmful and destructive effects of prison in light of his personal experience; physical discomfort by having to sleep in a cold cell, with hardly anything to cover him in bed; constant cravings for food; above all, psychological damage not only by subjugating the prisoner but also by controlling his external life So he was forced to rely entirely on the authorities to supply his needs. Such conditions and the strict control forced prisoners to revert to their childhood, in his opinion. Officially, the prisoners were not allowed to even talk to each other or to seek help from officials. He had to learn all of the daily routines of prison by watching his fellow inmates and following their example. He gives a powerful description of the thoroughly cold and comfortless environment of the prison: “There is something fiendish and sadistic about its internal design, with its contradictory sensations of impenetrability and constant exposure. Everything is strong, yet affords no cover….”

Why was he a pacifist:

“This book was born in prison. It deals with men in prison but its concern is what happens to them when they come out”

His background as the son of a Wesleyan minister was largely responsible for Merfyn Turner’s pacifism, and his faith in the capacity of humans for good if the right social conditions are created for them to blossom. Not a naive or dreamy faith in ‘human nature’, but a practical, humane faith that there is possibly an alternative way of organising society, that was not dependent on militarisation and imprisonment. He saw that prison is part of the same authoritarian social mechanism as the army and public schools, and that it is impossible to build a more peaceful and civilised society while such Victorian institutions still stand.

He was a man of empathy and unusual compassion, who learned through his own personal experience that poverty and social inequality were largely responsible for the crimes of most prisoners. He spent the rest of his life from 1940 until his death in 1991 undertaking innovative and experimental social work, mainly with former prisoners. Unconditional love was the basis of his work, as was his pacifism, which embraced each individual as part of the same creation and the same life whatever their failings or wrongdoing. In 1955, he founded the first refuge in Britain for men who had recently left prison. The pioneering example of Norman House was followed in tens of similar houses across Britain.