To celebrate International Conscientious Objectors Day on 15 May this year, a guest post by poet Tony Curtis, Emeritus Professor of Poetry at the University of South Wales, was published on the Seren Books company blog.
In his post, Professor Curtis reflected on notable conscientious objectors in the arts and on screen in Wales, especially during the two world wars. Among them were the artists John Elwyn, Arthur Giardelli and Jonah Jones and the writers and poets D. Gwenallt Jones, Roland Mathias, Waldo Williams and Emyr Humphries.
Here is the passage about Jonah:
‘During the last decade of his life I became friendly with the writer and artist Jonah Jones (1919–2004), whose remarkable life is celebrated in the Seren books Jonah Jones: An Artist’s Life and Dear Mona: Letters from a Conscientious Objector (edited by his son Peter Jones). Fascinated by John Petts’ illustrations of poems by Dylan Thomas in the Wales magazine, Jonah followed his fellow conscientious objector into the army as an unarmed medic in the Parachute Regiment. He described the excitement and terror of parachuting: “… when I jump, once I’m in the slipstream, I just ride it like a witch riding her broom.” After parachuting over occupied Europe to support the Allied invasion, Jonah arrived at Belsen prison camp. Having seen the horrors there he said that his opposition had been mistaken.’
The cover of Dear Mona was one of four illustrations included in the post.