to take a life and so he refused to fight.

"He was prepared to die for his belief and that took immense courage.”

As well as the graffiti of the Richmond Sixteen, the walls of the castle are covered in thousands more drawings, etchings and inscriptions from the first half of the 20th century, from the First World War to the Cold War, English Heritage said.

For the first time, a full inventory of all the graffiti will be compiled to give a deeper insight into all those who spent time within the walls.

On 29 May 1916, the Richmond Sixteen were taken from their cells and sent with other conscientious objectors to Henriville military camp, near Boulogne in France.

The men were given 24 hours to consider if they would follow ordersor risk being shot for continuing in their disobedience. Soon after the men were ordered to help unload war supplies, they refused and were sent for court-martial.

In the meantime, however, news that the men from Richmond were going to be sent to France had leaked out and Arthur Rowntree, MP for York and a Quaker, took up their case at the highest level and was soon calling for their release.

On 24 June 1916, in a dramatic scene, the court-martial passed a sentence of death but this was immediately commuted to 10 years of hard labour.

One of the conscientious objectors later wrote, “We came to realise that a great, perhaps decisive victory had been gained. Once and for all, we hoped the government had been brought to face the