My husband, Geoffrey Mitchell, who has died aged 85, was at the centre of the development of adult education in northern England. He belonged to a generation who knew that many working-class people aspired to full education and had been indelibly marked by the second world war.
In 1946, he registered as a conscientious objector. In his letter to the Ministry of Labour, Geoffrey explained why he had concluded that "war not only meant personal suffering but the negation of all civilised ideals" and decided that "to individually oppose fighting and to do what bit I can to advance general toleration and understanding is the only way". He was granted the alternative of carrying out his national service for the longer period of three years, from 1951 until 1954, in the Friends' Ambulance Unit International Service, which included a period in Germany.
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