Corder Catchpool

Thomas "Corder" Pettifor Catchpool (15 July 1883 – 16 September 1952), born Leicester, was an English Quaker and pacifist, actively engaged in relief work in Germany between 1919 and 1952.

He was awarded the French Mons Star for his relief work with the Friends Ambulance Unit on the Western Front (1914–1916), subsequently imprisoned in Britain for his absolutist conscientious objection to the Compulsory Military Service Act 1916.

Returning to Britain he worked as a welfare coordinator for a Lancashire firm at Darwen, and was responsible for the invitation to Gandhi to visit the mill to witness the impact of the nonviolence campaign on conditions.

[2] He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and temporarily detained,[3] and he, his family and the Quaker German Yearly Meeting were subject to ongoing surveillance and intimidation.

"[4] As an active member of the Peace Pledge Union during the Second World War, Catchpool joined secular pacifist Vera Brittain, non-pacifist Professor Stanley Jevons and others in setting up the Bombing Restriction Committee in 1942.