Mitchell His Own War - Extended Reading Task

Walt: find evidence and clues from the text to create a description   

Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter

1881 - 1970

Archibald Baxter was a man who was known as a conscientious objector who did not believe in war. People would want Archibald to join the army because he had good shooting skills. He was also a marksman and a boxer. In his past life he quit school at 12 to go work at a farm’s in the district doing jobs like thinning turnips,milking cows, herding sheep, building fences and shooting rabbits. In 1900 Archibald was 19 and heard the local MP and lawyer Alfred Barclay speaking against war. He started to read books about Pacifism. He thought it was wrong to kill and go to war. The first world war lasted from the 4th of August 1914 to the 11th of November 1918. There was more men needed and he was one of them to get picked he refused and joined a group of men who were conscientious objectors like him.  Some of them were like him because of Religious,Political or Personal Reasons. One morning in July 1917 Archie was forced with 11 other objectors to go ship on the Waitemata ferry to ship to Wellington. He was tied up to poles and his hands were always black with congested blood. He was a very good role model. One of his sons became a conscientious objectors like him and the other son became one of NZ’s best poet’s. He had the courage to say NO and was brave enough to get called a Coward.

By Mitchell