Archibald Baxter
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Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter (13 December 1881 - 10 August 1970) was a New Zealand pacifist, Christian socialist, and anti-war activist.
He refused to serve during the first world war, on the grounds that "all war is wrong, futile, and destructive alike to victor and vanquished." So he was arrested in 1917, imprisoned, then shipped to the western front and beaten, starved and tortured. Still refusing to fight, he was given Field Punishment No.1 - in effect, being crucified on a pole - and later was tied to a shed being used for shelling practice. He suffered a complete physical and mental breakdown, but survived, and returned to his Otago farm after the war.
Three years later he married Millicent Brown.
His autobiography We Will Not Cease was published in 1939. It covers in detail his experiences in World War I.
His son James Keir Baxter (named in part after Keir Hardie) is one of New Zealand's most famous poets. His eldest son Terence was also imprisoned for refusing to serve during World War II.
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