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Pacifists Routed at Brotherhood Church
Windows are smashed, doors broken and blows exchanged, as a violent mob attacks a pacifist meeting held inside a Hackney church.
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Overview
This offers terrifying evidence of the hatred towards pacifists during the First World War. A large mob smashes windows and kicks in doors of a church in Hackney, before they hurl objects at those sheltering inside. The victims are pacifists – the Brotherhood Church were a Christian sect with origins in the Quakers – and the caption celebrates the aggressors as the ‘forces of loyalty and patriotism’. As the violence unfolds, a policeman studiously looks the other way.
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