HEARD the one about the soldier who refused to fight in the First World War and would go on to become an MP?

This is remarkable story of Warrington's Charles Dukes.

He moved to the town ages 13 in 1893 and work in an iron works.

By 1912 he became a member of the board of the national executive of the newly formed British Socialist Party.

A small proportion of conscientious objectors refused to take any kind of war related role, arguing that to do so was to legitimise war instead of pacifism. The wartime Coalition Government did not want to make martyrs out of the pacifists which included those who opposed war on religious or moral grounds and left wing politicians who believed that the war was a capitalist conspiracy against the working classes. Charles Dukes was determined to take a stand and his case attracted nation -wide attention.

His case was referred from the local tribunal to the Salford Appeal Court in August 1916 where he affirmed that his grounds for exemption were political rather than religious and his convictions were based upon, “the moral concept that in the right and wrong of social progress war is never justifiable.” The National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers had also appealed on his behalf, claiming that his role as a full time union official made him indispensable. Duke’s maintained that if his claim had been based on his union work rather than his political views he would have been given exemption and implied he was the subject of unfair discrimination.

The tribunal lost patience; his appeal was rejected and he was conscripted into the Cheshire Regiment.

Dukes refused to sign the enlistment papers and claimed that he was subsequently ill treated by two Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) who tried to bully him into submission. He refused to obey military orders in the knowledge that this would lead to a court martial where he was sentenced to two years hard labour. Dukes then contended that he was refused military representation at his later hearing and questions were raised in the House of Commons about his case and the conduct of the NCOs by Warrington’s Conservative MP, Harold Smith. However, Dukes lost his case and served his prison sentence. Whilst some admired his stand many local workers and even some of his trade union colleagues regarded his actions as unpatriotic.

As the post war trade slump deepened Warrington’s traditional political parties of Conservatives and Liberals were determined to maintain the pre war political establishment and were prepared to take on the threat from the Labour party.

Charles Dukes was undaunted and in the general election of 1923 was returned as MP for Warrington for the first time. His parliamentary career was relatively short lived but his trade union career flourished and by 1946 he was President of the Trade Union Congress.