49 Lady Courtney, diary

This exhibition includes the diaries of two women who were active supporters of conscientious objection. Sybil White was an active pacifist who worked with the families of interned Germans during the War. Her husband, Andrew White, was a conscientious objector, imprisoned at Wormwood Scrubs, Ayr, Barlinnie (Glasgow) and Duke Street (Glasgow) from Oct 1916 to Mar 1919. In her diary Sybil White records some of the hostility she experienced while working with interned children. Kate Courtney, the wife of Lord Courtney of Penwith, was also a pacifist, who hoped to be a champion for “innocent enemies”. She worked with interned German civilians in Britain, and visited German prisoners of war. In 1915 she supported attempts to organize a negotiated end to the war; and in 1918 attempted to gain access for Quakers to visit Germany with relief supplies. Though the Daily Sketch called Lady Courtney “pro-Hun”, her Extracts from a Diary (1927) testify to her beliefs in the fatal consequences of righteous hatred and militarism.