why didn't he fight?

[toff]

Hello

This is my first post (apart from introducing myself) and I hope it's in the correct place! The question that has been burning a hole in my brain for the last year or so is "why didn't my granddad fight in WW1?" He was born in 1887 and did not have a reserved occupation (he was a barber). He had no medical condition which would have prevented him from enlisting. By the outbreak of war he had a wife and three childen under 4 years of age, with another two born in 1915 and 1917. My mother (born 1931) cannot answer my question - she only knows what he did during WWII.
Any ideas or thoughts would be really appreciated

Thanks
Toff

[sulee]

C O pacifist?

[toff]

C O pacifist?

A possibility. Do you know if objectors were obliged to "register" their ojections, so to speak?

[notanotherminer]

Hi toff and welcome to Brit-Gen

Does your mother know for certain that he didn't enlist in WW1 or are you assuming that he didn't because you can't find any records for him?

If the latter many records were destroyed by bombing in WW2 and unfortunately only about 40% survived. Have you looked for a Medal Card for him at all?

[notanotherminer]

A possibility. Do you know if objectors were obliged to "register" their ojections, so to speak?

Conscription wasn't introduced until 1916 after Britain had suffered huge casualties and insufficient men were volunteering. The government introduced what was known as a "conscience clause" where a man could declare that military service was "against his conscience" and could apply for exemption. Tribunals were set up for the purpose of hearing these applications for exemption. The rules were complicated and there were many different rulings the tribunals could make from service in the army in a non-combatant role to full exemption with various other roles to help the war effort in between. Very often though the applications were rejected and men could be forcibly enlisted. If they still refused they were thrown in prison, and of course if they were unfortunate enough to end up in uniform and refused to fight they could face summary execution.

To understand it more fully google "conscientious objectors in World War 1" (use the inverted commas).

I don't think there are any surviving records of these tribunals but hopefully I could be wrong and soneone may correct me.

[Jan1954]

If you get the chance to visit TNA at Kew, there are some papers in WO32 that may be worth looking at.

[Jonesy]

My mother (born 1931) cannot answer my question - she only knows what he did during WWII.

Hi Toff. Do you mean your mother says he fought in WW2? He would've been around 52 at the outbreak. Perhaps he did fight (or at least signed up) for the First World War.

Bear in mind a lack of service records does not mean a lack of service.

[JenniLl]

My Grandfather born in 1879 was deemed unfit for active service due to 'flat feet'; he was a carpenter / joiner and a retained fireman, so I guess that counted as his duty. I have not found any papers for him relating to enlistment.

Jenni

[peter nicholl]

Hi Toff
Welcome to the Forum. Just a thought, but if you say what his name was ,then SKS (the Forum's full of them) may be able to shed some light.

[DorothySandra]

One of the great shocks of the 1st war was the poor physical condition of thousands of young men because of poor diet and lack of clean air and exercise. A shockingly high number were too debilitated to be accepted, some were accepted and then sent home when the better food and physical exercise failed to improve their health. Many became stronger and fitter with the food and exercise that the services provided.

It was this that led to government projects to improve health - free milk, school meals and so on - and the really rather efficient rationing and advice of the WWII government.

It took a good deal of moral courage to be accepted as a conscientious objector in the face of the prevailing attitudes, and even then you might fail unless you were Quaker (they were known to be pacifists) or could prove that you had held pacifist views before the war. Many conscientious objectors were ambulance drivers or in other supportive roles.