A Child of Our Time - Conscientious Objector

Conscientious Objector

After the outbreak of war in September 1939, Tippett joined the Peace Pledge Union—with which he had been informally associated since 1935—and applied for registration as a conscientious objector, although his case was not considered by the tribunal until February 1942. In October 1940 he became director of music at Morley College, where the previous April he had conducted the South London Orchestra in the premiere of his Concerto for Double String Orchestra. After completing the composition of A Child of Our Time in 1941, Tippett worked on other projects, feeling that the oratorio's pacifist message was out of touch with the prevailing national mood; Walter Goehr, who conducted the Morley College orchestra, advised delaying its first performance until a more propitious time. In February 1942 Tippett was assigned to non-combative military duties. Following his appeal, this was changed to service either with Air Raid Precautions (ARP), the fire service or on the land. He felt obliged to refuse these directions, and as a result was sentenced in June 1943 to three months' imprisonment, of which he served two months before his early release for good behaviour.