'Quakers in khaki': Conscientious Objectors' Resistance to Uniform Clothing in First World War Britain

In this chapter I argue that the COs’ refusal to wear khaki uniform gave their protest its symbolic power. Personal accounts from COs recount the drama that ensued when they first said no to khaki, but these episodes were also of interest to newspapers of the day. I use both to explore how army clothing embodied military participation, which signalled a crisis when COs refused to don khaki. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, this chapter explores the critical role of army uniform in struggles over wartime representations of peace and conflict. Even though COs were numerically few, their resistance to khaki threatened to undermine a wartime project that relied upon mass regulation clothing to construct images of transformation and control.

Publisher's text about this book:

This wide-ranging multidisciplinary collection highlights the centrality of representations for the study of peace and conflict. Its analysis covers topics as diverse as British soldiers' photographic records, social identity in Northern Ireland; memory work; the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission; the London memorial to the Women of World War II and protest songs in the popular music charts. These studies are written by an array of internationally influential authors, as well as emerging scholars, from a range of social science and humanities disciplines including cultural studies; geography; history; linguistics; media studies; peace studies; religious studies and social psychology. This rich and varied volume constitutes a timely engagement with matters pertaining to how peace and conflict are represented in many unique forms.