Doncaster Times Issue 1 - June 2016

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infirmity’, or that he held a ‘conscientious objection to the undertaking of combatant service’. 6 Such claims would be heard alongside those of attested men by the existing local tribunals, which could now grant temporary, conditional, or absolute exemption. 7 Furthermore, the Act established area appeal tribunals, to which the reservist or the military representative could refer a claim if they were dissatisfied with a local tribunal’s decision. 8 By the end of the war, further Military Service Acts had extended the scope of conscription to all men, single and married, up to the age of 51. However, it must be remembered that not every individual of military age came within the Tribunals’ jurisdiction. Many in essential war industries were afforded protection directly by government departments, most notably the Ministry of Munitions and the War Office, and therefore had no need to lodge a formal appeal. 9 What is the relevance of all of this to the family historian? It might be expected that any national system of conscription would have left a large volume of official documents. This is not the case, however, because in 1921 the Government ordered local authorities to dispose of all the tribunal records. 10 Only a few exceptions were made, namely the papers of the Lothian and Peebles Appeal Tribunal, recently digitised by the National Archives of Scotland, and the papers of the Middlesex Appeal Tribunal and the Central Tribunal, which will soon be digitised under a joint project of the National Archives, the Friends of the National Archives, and the Federation of Family History Societies. 11 Fortunately, not all local authorities carried out the Government’s destruction order and for whatever reason some other records have been preserved. Every tribunal kept minutes, a register of decisions, a correspondence file, and the appeal forms for individual cases. Where such records survive they will usually be found in the local archives, most likely in the files of the council. After successive local government reorganisations since 1921 many archivists quite rightly complain that, with their limited staffing resources, they still do not know the full extent of their records and new discoveries are being made on a regular basis. In addition to official documents, the other significant resource on tribunal proceedings are the reports published in the local press. Many newspapers for the conscription period are accessible on microfilm at local history libraries. Exemption appeals offer rich potential as an avenue of inquiry for the family historian. In the popular mind, tribunal sittings were largely, or even solely, concerned with the cases of that small group of men who raised conscientious objections to performing military service. This misconception has been reinforced by the overwhelming focus on these individuals in the historiography. 12 In actual fact, the number of men who appealed to the tribunals was vast, certainly over a million, meaning that many researchers should be able to find at least one relative who claimed exemption. 13 Moreover, conscientious objectors made up only a tiny fraction of the appeal bodies’ workload, never more than 5% in any area studied so far, meaning that having no known family history of objections to war is not a bar to finding out about an ancestor through these records. 14 The vast majority of appellants argued some form of hardship or occupational grounds, although the precise reasons for claiming exemption were as varied as the backgrounds of the individuals who cited them. If there is a good chance of finding information on a relative, it is also likely that it will prove to be of interest. A tribunal register or an individual appeal form would be important finds for a family historian, as they would contain the name of the eligible man, his address, his occupation, age, and employer, whether the appeal was made by the man or the employer, the decision of the tribunal, and whether a further appeal was lodged. An examination of the local newspaper reports should also be rewarding. When the exemption system was introduced some tribunals refused to allow the press and public into their proceedings, fearing that men would be deterred from appealing or be subject to ridicule if their identity was made known to the public. Even when they were given access, some editors refused to give names and addresses for similar reasons. However, other newspapers published full details from the start, and this became commonplace in the final two years of the war when the stigma of appealing had diminished. Even where names are not given in the press reports, if there is a register entry or an appeal form it will often be apparent from the stated facts which case is which. The primary value of the newspaper coverage lies in the fact that the burden of proof in any claim to exemption fell on the appellant. This meant that their testimony often contained rich descriptions of domestic, business and occupational circumstances and how these had been affected by the war. Frequently, appellants went on to describe the situations of their relatives or the conditions at their workplace, thereby providing a glimpse into the wider community. The final utility of the reports is in detailing the tribunal’s verdict. Clearly this was a seminal moment for the eligible man, as it meant the 4 • •
difference between remaining at home in relative safety, or being sent to the front to face the very real prospect of injury or death. Having a sense of how the decision was reached would, therefore, be particularly poignant for the family historian. From research carried out into my own family it is apparent that despite the system of conscription none of my forebears saw any service with the military. My great-grandfather was an engineer and so exempt from military service; tracing his ancestry back to a long line of wire drawers operating from the Eyton & Littlewood works in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham. It is hoped that this article and the ongoing digitisation of Tribunal records will stimulate others without a military past to explore another fascinating avenue of family history research. 1932), p. 152; A.J.P. Taylor, Politics in Wartime and Other Essays (London, Hamilton, 1964), p. 24. 14 James G.M. Cranstoun, ‘The Impact of the Great War on a Local Community: The Case of East Lothian’, PhD Thesis, Open University, 1992, p. 117; Keith Grieves, ‘Military Tribunal Papers: The Case of Leek Local Tribunal in the First World War’, Archives: The Journal of the British Record Association XVI (1983), p. 146; Christine Housden, ‘Researching Kingston’s Military Tribunal, 1916-1918’, Occasional Papers in Local History II (2004), p. 6; James McDermott, ‘Conscience and the Military Service Tribunals during the First World War: Experiences in Northamptonshire’, War in History XVII (2010), p. 68; K.W. Mitchinson, Saddleworth 1914-1919: The Experience of a Pennine Community during the Great War (Saddleworth: Saddleworth Historical Society, 1995), p. 65; A.J. Peacock, York in the Great War: 1914-1918 (York: York Settlement Trust, 1993), p. 511; Ivor Slocombe, ‘Recruitment into the Armed Forces during the First World War: The Work of the Military Tribunals in Wiltshire, 1915-1918’, The Local Historian XXX (2000), p. 111; Philip Spinks ‘‘The War Courts’: The Stratford-upon-Avon Borough Tribunal, 1916-1918’, The Local Historian XXXII (2000), p. 214. David Littlewood 1 HMSO, Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914-1920 London: HMSO, 1922, p. 364. 2 HMSO, Statistics of the Military Effort, p. 364. 3 R.J.Q. Adams and Philip P. Poirier, The Conscription Controversy in Great Britain, 1900-18 (Ohio, Ohio State University Press, 1987), pp. 115-8. 4 Local Government Board Circular R. 1, 26 October 1915, MH 47/142, The National Archives (TNA). 5 Memorandum by Lord Derby on the Results of the Derby Scheme, 20 December 1915, Asquith Papers 82, Bodleian Library. 6 Military Service Act 1916, Section 2 (1). 7 Local Government Board Circular R. 36, 3 February 1916, MH 47/142, TNA; Military Service Act 1916, Section 2 (3). 8 Military Service Act, 1916, Second Schedule. 9 Statement for the War Committee, 24 October 1916, CAB 17/158, TNA. 10 Ministry of Health Circular No. 293, 27 March 1922, MH 47/5, TNA. 11 The Lothian and Peebles holdings can be found at http:// www.nas.gov.uk/about/081103.asp, while information on the digitalisation of the Middlesex and Central Tribunal records is available at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/conscriptionappeals/ 12 See for example: David Boulton, Objection Overruled (London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1967); John Rae, Conscience and Politics: The British Government and the Conscientious Objector to Military Service, 1916-1919 (London, Oxford University Press, 1970); Thomas C. Kennedy, The Hound of Conscience: A History of the No-Conscription Fellowship, 1914-1919 (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1981); Martin Ceadel, Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000). 13 Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig’s Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme (London, MacMillan and Co., The British Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener was killed on June 5, 1916 when the ship he was on struck a German mine and sank off the coast of the Orkney Islands. Lord Kitchener had become a familiar face through his pointing recruitment posters. The Doncaster press described his death as a ‘national calamity’. A large service was held at Doncaster Minster in his memory attended by the Mayor, councillors, wounded soldiers from local hospitals and their nurses. • 5 •
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