1916-1-27 Conscription

1916-1-27: British Government's Military Service Act - WW1 Conscription - HiPo > .

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On 27 January 1916 conscription was approved by the British Government when the Military Service Act was passed. The Act was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom during the First World War to impose conscription in Great Britain, but not in Ireland or any other country around the world.

The Bill which became the Act was introduced by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in January 1916. It received royal assent on 27 January, and came into force on 2 March 1916. Previously the British Government had relied on voluntary enlistment, and latterly a kind of moral conscription called the Derby Scheme.

When the First World War began in the summer of 1914, the British military relied on volunteers to join up and fight. The recruitment campaign, most famously promoted by Lord Kitchener’s "Your Country Needs You" poster had resulted in over one million men enlisting by January 1915. However, by 1916 the human cost of the war was mounting. Faced with staggering casualty figures and a significant decline in the number of volunteers, the military had insufficient soldiers to meet the escalating demands of the conflict.

In response, the government opted to increase numbers in the armed forces through compulsory enlistment, known as conscription. Introduced by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in January 1916, the Military Service Act deeply divided Parliament and even the ruling Liberal Party. It would make all single men and childless widowers between the ages of 18 and 41 liable to be called up, representing an unprecedented step by the state into the lives of the British public. 35 Liberal MPs voted against the bill while the Home Secretary, Sir John Simon, resigned his position.

The conscription issue divided the Liberal Party including the Cabinet. Sir John Simon resigned as Home Secretary and attacked the government in his resignation speech in the House of Commons, where 35 Liberals voted against the bill, alongside 13 Labour MPs and 59 Irish Nationalists.

Nevertheless, Parliament overall acknowledged the need for prompt action and the Act was passed. It received royal assent on 27 January but was met with a protest demonstration of approximately 200,000 people in London’s Trafalgar Square, while by July almost 30% of those called up to fight had failed to appear. Nevertheless there was the possibility of exemption from service for those who were medically unfit alongside clergymen, teachers and certain classes of industrial worker. Only 2% of all exemption applications were for conscientious objectors who appealed on moral grounds.

The Act specified that men from 18 to 41 years old were liable to be called up for service in the army unless they were eligible for exemptions listed under this Act, including men who were married, widowed with children, serving in the Royal Navy, a minister of religion, or working in one of a number of reserved occupations, or for conscientious objection. A second Act in May 1916 extended liability for military service to married men, and a third Act in 1918 extended the upper age limit to 51.

Men or employers who objected to an individual's call-up could apply to a local Military Service Tribunal. These tribunals had powers to grant exemption from service, usually conditional or temporary, under the eligibility criteria which for the first time in history included conscientious objection. There was right of appeal to a County Appeal Tribunal, and finally to a Central Tribunal in Westminster in London.

Due to political considerations, the Military Service Act of 1916 applied only to male British subjects ordinarily resident in Great Britain. It never extended to those living in Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Conscription Crisis of 1918 occurred when the British Government tried to impose conscription on Ireland. Sinn Féin was publicly perceived to be the key instigator of anti-conscription feeling, and on 17 May the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord French, claiming there was a treasonable plot between Sinn Féin and the Germans, ordered the arrest of 73 Sinn Féin leaders. The outcome was greater public support for Sinn Féin.

• Recruitment to the British Army during the First World War w
• Reserved occupations w