In 1914, anticipating the introduction of military conscription for the First World War, Lilla Brockway suggested that a group should be formed to unite those who planned to refuse.

[6] In his memoir, Inside the Left, Fenner Brockway recalled:It was in November, 1914, that my wife (we had married a fortnight after the outbreak of war) made the proposal that those who intended to refuse military service should band themselves together, and we issued an invitation to prospective resisters to join a “No-Conscription Fellowship".

[12]Fenner Brockway's letter to the Labour Leader in November 1914 elicited 300 replies, leading to the formation of the No-Conscription Fellowship.

[13] Lilla initially undertook the administration, but as the organisation grew and branches were established across the country (61 by the following November) it was moved onto a more formal footing.

Fenner Brockway's opposition to military conscription saw him imprisoned four times during the war, for a total of 28 months.

[10] Nonetheless, Fenner Brockway later wrote:Often I think that our wives had a harder time than those of us who were prisoners; they had to live in the middle of a war-mad world and to undergo the contumely which opposition to the war and relationship to an imprisoned “conchy” involved.