PAPER TITLE: World War One through Pacifist Eyes
ABSTRACT: Christchurch based Charles Mackie was Secretary of the National Peace Council for more than thirty years, from 1912 to 1943.
Reflecting on his life and achievements in the peace movement, this paper will focus on the war years of World War One when Mackie felt a keen sense of disappointment and failure.
He and other pacifists at this time felt under attack and out of step with the dominant discourse, but how effective were they and were they more widely supported than they knew?
This paper is an off-shoot of the Voices Against War research and education project which was initiated by the Disarmament and Security Centre and received initial funding from the WWI Commemoration Heritage Lottery Fund, Environment and Heritage committee.
The Voices Against War website was supported by the University of Canterbury’s School of Humanities and Creative Arts, and developed by the UC Arts Digital Lab. It is edited by Associate Professor Jane Buckingham and was launched in May 2016.
BIO: Margaret Lovell-Smith is currently working with Dan Bartlett on a book which aims to tell the little-known story of the strong response made by Canterbury men, women and peace groups to pre-World War One compulsory military training and wartime conscription.
She has previously published on topics of local and regional history, women’s biography and the nineteenth-century women’s movement in Canterbury.
TIME/LOCATION
10 November
5:30 pm
Arts Centre, Camarata Room (Old Chemistry Building).
ZOOM (if at Level 2 or above):
https://canterbury.zoom.us/j/96258176273
Meeting ID: 962 5817 6273
