The “Home Office Scheme”…
The large numbers of men imprisoned – 6000 in total – created a scandal in the Press and Parliament, so a new scheme was devised to resolve the impasse. Imprisoned conscientious objectors were offered the opportunity of a release from prison and the army on the condition of entering the ‘Home Office Scheme’ a series of Work Centres and Work Camps where COs would live communally and be engaged in arduous work, but would wear civilian clothes and be allowed to go outside the centre in the evenings and on Sundays.
The most notorious of these Camps was at Dyce, Aberdeenshire, where men had been performing ‘work of national importance’ – breaking up granite rock to produce stone for road building – here the men were housed in leaky tents and one died from pneumonia, leading to an inquiry and a debate in parliament and rapid closure of the camp. Another place was the former Dartmoor Prison, which became Princetown Work Centre.Llanddeusant Waterworks became one such Home Office Scheme, where around 200 conscientious objectors found themselves carrying out manual labour. In order to comply with Home Office regulations the camp was cleaned and improved, with the addition of kitchen facilities in a new hut, a laundry, a small hospital hut and provision given for a doctor to visit three or four times a week.
