Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter
Today, Archibald Baxter is overshadowed by the reputation of his son James K. Baxter, New Zealand’s most famous poet and barefoot prophet and social critic of the 1960s. But in 1916, Archie came under intense scrutiny from the authorities for his refusal to join the military and fight for Great Britain in its war against the Central Powers. A rabbiter from Brighton near Dunedin, he had the audacity to question the government’s right to compel men to fight in a war that was happening 12,000 miles away. Baxter saw the war as a family scrap among the crowned heads of Europe – a war in which millions of working men like himself were being forced to throw away their lives to satisfy the vanity and ambition of their imperial masters.
In an atmosphere of almost hysterical patriotism, Archie and his six brothers all became conscientious objectors. They were all imprisoned for their beliefs except Mark who, though pacifist, was exempt from conscription as a married man. Archie, two of his brothers and eleven other “conchies” were shipped off to Britain on the troopship Waitemata in July 1917. Taken to the Western Front, Archie and others were beaten, starved and threatened with death if they refused to don the uniform.
Interned at “Mud Farm” in Belgium, Archie himself was subjected to Field Punishment No. 1, also known by the troops as “the crucifixion”. For day after day, and for hours at a time in all weathers, he was tied to a forward-sloping stake by his ankles, knees and wrists, cutting off the circulation and causing him excruciating pain. Later, he was made to stand near an ammunition dump under enemy shelling, and was forced to take a tour of front-line trenches under fire. Later still – his mind broken but not his will – he was confined in a military asylum, another house of horrors.
After the war, Archie returned to New Zealand and in 1921 married Millicent Macmillan Brown, daughter of John Macmillan Brown, professor of English and Classics at Canterbury College. Millicent’s mother Helen Connon was the first woman in the British Empire to take a university degree with honours.
Archibald Baxter recorded his wartime experiences in a memoir first published in 1939, We Will Not Cease (Auckland: Cape Catley, 2003). It has become a New Zealand classic.Archibald Baxter
5th March 1918 (extract from a letter to his parents from somewhere in France)
While others rallied eagerly to the British Empire’s call following the outbreak of war in 1914, Otago farmer Archibald Baxter was determined never to become a cog in a killing machine on a scale the world had never seen before.
Nevertheless, in July 1917 he and 13 other conscientious objectors, including two of his brothers, were kidnapped and shipped off to France where Baxter was threatened, beaten, starved and tortured for his refusal to wear a military uniform.
His story has been told in his classic memoir We Will not Cease and in the 2014 made-for-TV film Field Punishment No. 1.
In 2014, the Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust was set up to honour Baxter’s memory, and the courage shown by all New Zealand’s conscientious objectors in all wars, through a memorial peace garden in the heart of Dunedin, an annual peace lecture and ongoing educational work.
Or less than that, my father hung
From a torture post at Mud Farm
Because he would not kill.
| James K. Baxter, Pig Island Letters 8 |
DONATE TO THE TRUST
We are raising money in Archie's memory of striving for peace by working with schools to spread his ideals through Debating Competitions and, later, by publishing a graphic novel of Archie's book 'We Will Not Cease'.
You can help us by donating at our Givealittle page.
The Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust
Registered Charity No: CC50104
Kiwi Bank No: 38 9015 0602056 00
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