Alfred Barratt Brown (1887-1947) was a Woodbrooke lecturer and later Principal of Ruskin College. He was a conscientious objector, and was imprisoned in 1916 for distributing an anti-conscription pamphlet. A memory/biography of him was printed in the Friend in 2015, and some further information about him can be found in Organised Rage’s potted biography of his son.

• In 1917 he said to the War and Social Order Committee: “Our Society is still in a rut, we need Quaker Jingoism, for those Friends who approve war are really those with least courage and pugnacity and spirit of adventure.”
• Also in 1917 he spoke on “the necessary revolution”, giving a full socialist analysis. His approach might be summarised in this quotation: “Christians talk of Christianising the revolution, let us rather seek to revolutionise our Christianity”.