page_title: Archibald Baxter
section_title: Deportation to the front
hierarchical_section_title: Archibald Baxter / World War I / Deportation to the front
caption_attribution_description: English: Contemporary illustration of Field Punishment Number One
context_page_description: Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter was a New Zealand socialist, pacifist and conscientious objector.
context_section_description: In 1917 the Minister of Defence, Sir James Allen, decided that all men claiming to be conscientious objectors but not accepted as such should be sent to the Western Front. Accordingly, orders were given by Colonel H R Potter, Trentham Camp Commandant, that he along with 13 other conscientious objectors - his two brothers, William Little (Hikurangi), Frederick Adin (Foxton), Garth Carsley Ballantyne (Wellington), Mark Briggs (politician), David Robert Gray (Hinds. Canterbury), Thomas Percy Harland (Roslyn, Dunedin), Lawrence Joseph Kirwan (Hokitika), Daniel Maguire (Foxton), Lewis Edward Penwright (Geeverton, Tasmania), Henry Patton (Cobden Greymouth) and Albert Ernest Sanderson (Babylori, North Wairoa) - were to be shipped out.  On 24 July they were embarked on the troopship Waitemata en voyage to Cape Town, where a measles epidemic on board caused the ship to stop. Archibald, Jack and Sanderson and some troops were taken to hospital, and the ship was condemned by the port authorities as unfit for troops, necessitating the civilian liner Norman Castle being used to take the main military group, including the other COs, to England.
  After recovery, Archibald and the other two COs were taken on the civilian liner Llanstephan Castle, arriving at Plymouth, Devon, on 26 December. Baxter was still refusing to put on a uniform or do any work for the army. He was kept under detention at Sling Camp, Salisbury Plain, and then sent to France, Folkestone–Boulogne, and on to Étaples. British newspapers of the time reported that because he had been sent to the front he could be shot for disobeying orders.
  There Baxter remained under detention and continued to refuse any military involvement. He had been assigned to E Company of the 28th Reinforcements, led by Captain Frederick Harold Batten, father of the aviator Jean Batten. He was placed under Lt Col George Mitchell, 3rd Otago Reserve Battalion, who investigated his case, questioning him about his beliefs, but ultimately finding that he was considered a soldier by the New Zealand Government. Mitchell told Baxter that if he did not obey military orders he should expect to be punished, as determined by Mitchell. Eventually Mitchell punished Baxter with 28 days of Field Punishment No.1 at Oudredoum (near Ypres in Belgium).
  A doctor examined Baxter before the punishment, and despite telling Baxter he thought he was unfit for it, spitefully passed him as fit.  Because the personnel at Oudredoum would not punish him, he was moved to Mud Farm near Dickebusch (also known as Dikkebus) in West Flanders, where he was put under two hours punishment each day. Eventually he was sent to Abeele and back to Mitchell. On 5 March Mitchell ordered him up to the lines at Ypres. Provost Sergeant Booth was put in charge of Baxter and at one time punched him in the face and beat him up, Booth saying he had been ordered to do so. Baxter was placed under Captain Phillips and taken to the Otago Infantry Regiment camp. He was then returned to Booth's supervision.
  At one stage Booth, on direction from a Captain Stevenson, placed Baxter by an ammunition dump being shelled by the Germans. Despite a heavy barrage, Baxter was unharmed. After further abusive treatment including starvation, he suffered a complete physical and mental breakdown, and was sent to hospital in England about May 1918. According to his records, by the time he went to hospital he had been assigned to the 3rd New Zealand Entrenching Battalion.
  Baxter was said to have been diagnosed as suffering from melancholia. He was returned to New Zealand, but during the voyage was diagnosed as being in good mental and physical health. He arrived on 21 September 1918, and returned to his Otago farm after the war.
  The physical treatment given to Baxter can to a large extent be directly attributed to the attitudes of the Minister of Defence, Allen; the Commander of New Zealand forces based in England, Brigadiar-General Sir George Richardson, and General Godley, Commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. Godley gave orders that if Baxter and the others
caption: Contemporary illustration of Field Punishment Number One.
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