THE VETERAN PACIFIST AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE EVANS

In 2014, George Evans recited the poem For The Fallen at his local Remembrance Sunday parade in his hometown of Wellington, Shropshire. He had done this for many years, but on this occasion he also recited his own self-composed poem, The Lesson. “I remember my friends and my enemies too/We all did our duties to our countries/We all obeyed our orders/Then we murdered each other/Isn’t war stupid?”

For deviating from the traditional script Evans was subsequently barred from giving the reading again by the local branch of the Royal British Legion, and the ensuing controversy was reported by national newspapers. Despite the fallout, it is arguable that Evans had earned the right to say what he said. He had participated in fierce fighting in Normandy in 1944 as a private in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. After heavy regimental losses, Evans was transferred to the Herefordshire Light Infantry and fought across Western Europe and into Germany. He subsequently participated in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and it was these horrific experiences that developed and reinforced his pacifism.

Evans later became a Quaker and turned his pacifist beliefs into actions, which culminated in the opening of a public ‘Peace Garden’ in Wellington in 2012. Now aged 95, he discusses his reluctant soldiering, campaigning for peace, and why war is not inevitable.

A “frightened” conscript

How did it feel to be conscripted into the army?

I was called up in 1942 when I was 18. I was frightened. You get