Emmanuel Ribeiro, was arrested on 17th January 1917. He was taken to Salford Police Court and fined 4 shillings. He was then transferred to Bury Barracks where he went on hunger strike.
He was an Absolutist, which means that he refused to co-operate with conscription or to do any war related work. He did not believe in the concept of war and young lives being lost. It may be because two of his four brothers, were killed in the war. He was always a protester, a socialist and passionate about the rights of the common man.
On 24th January, he was force fed against his will. On 25th January he was transferred to the Lord Derby War Hospital, at Winwick near Warrington where the force feeding continued. He was force fed 155 times over a period of 17 months.

On 15th March he wrote a letter to his wife, Bella, describing in great detail the force feeding process.
The way he was treated was the subject of controversy and his plight a cause of concern taken up by leading campaigners and MPs during the period of his incarceration. This is all recorded in Hansard (the daily report of what is said in Parliament).

In March 1918 he was court martialled, sentenced to two years hard labour and sent to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, in London.

A petition was drafted to Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, giving relevant details of his situation.

The signatories to the petition included: George Lansbury, editor of the Daily Herald. Bertrand Russell, himself a conscientious objector and Catherine Marshall, a significant campaigner and Honourable Secretary for the No-Conscription Fellowship. The original petition is in the Catherine Marshall Archives in Carlisle.
He was released from prison on health grounds on 8th June 1918, weighing only 7 stones, having survived his ordeal.