Enlisted, Conscripted or volunteer?

[TEW]

Hoping for a bit of help regarding enlisting, deferred enlisted and conscription either to regular army, or under Derby Scheme. I’m trying to ID a Private Preston, no first name, regiment or number known as yet. I have a text which says ‘ He enlisted in January 1916 and was sent to France in October 1916’.

He appears to be 19 years old in May/June 1918 and 20 years old in Sept 1918. Which would give him a birth date of May-Sept 1898 and would therefore be about 17½ in January 1916 and not a conscript??

I’m not sure but would he also be too young under the Derby Scheme? In which case does this make him a regular army volunteer?

These dates and ages also suggest he went to France in Oct 1916 aged 18 which can’t be right. Seems unlikely he would lie about his age on the National Registration form to be conscripted underage.

As he was a severe hospital case I’ve been through all 465 Prestons on the SWB Roll and there is only one with enlistment of Jan 1916 but he is 2 years too old on discharge. Maybe this is him with his fabricated age and the hospital text gives his correct age.

I realise the hospital text giving his age may be wrong or have errors and the SWB roll may not be complete or he may not have applied.

Wondered if the enlisted in January 1916 statement may not mean that. In other words could he have joined up in eg Oct 1915 but deferred until Jan 1916 due to special occupation and if so the SWB would give Enlistment as Oct 1915?

Thanks

TEW

[Magnumbellum]

If he enlisted in January 1916, then he was definitely not a conscript. The MSA did not take full effect until 2 March 1916. I would suggest the most likely scenario is that he volunteered under-age, probably irrespective of the Derby Scheme.

The fact that he correctly disclosed his age at National Registration in August 1915 would by no means necessarily have been picked up at the recruiting office - there was no automatic way of linking such records.

[ss002d6252]

Wondered if the enlisted in January 1916 statement may not mean that. In other words could he have joined up in eg Oct 1915 but deferred until Jan 1916 due to special occupation and if so the SWB would give Enlistment as Oct 1915?

Private Preston still seems to be hiding.

The SWB should give the date he was actually called up (or the date of enlistment if he joined up for immediate service).

I'm sure at one point that there was a drive to take men who were under-age for overseas service but could spend time at home training until they were old enough but I'm not sure when this came.

Craig

[TEW]

Yes, Preston is still under his bed!!

I read the following from TLLT the Government introduced the Military Service Act on 27 January 1916. All voluntary enlistment was stopped. All British males were now deemed to have enlisted on 2 March 1916 - that is, they were conscripted - if they were aged between 19 and 41 and resided in Great Britain (excluding Ireland) and were unmarried or a widower on 2 November 1915.

So I interpreted this as meaning Preston must have volunteered before 27/1/16 as Hurst says 'He enlisted in Jan 1916'. But Hurst, not being of military background may not be using 'enlisted' in the correct way.

As I said, there is only one Preston on the SWB roll with enlistment date of Jan 1916 but too old by 2 years when discharged.

I suppose the officer in charge of records dealing with SWB would be going by his apparent age given on forms available to him but Preston may have confessed his real age to Hurst.

Looks like he may be hiding for a while.

Thanks

TEW

[Magnumbellum]

For what it is worth, my hypothesis is that Preston voluntarily enlisted in January 1916, lying about his age - the extent of the lie may be open to question. My hypothesis continues, that during his service his true age was discovered, and his records corrected, but he was allowed to continue in service.

[TEW]

Magnumbellum

that during his service his true age was discovered, and his records corrected, but he was allowed to continue in service.

This would open another can of worms. As there are no Prestons on the SWB roll who fulfil the criteria of:

Enlisted Jan 1916

Discharged sometime after 30/8/1917 (date he was blown up)

Correct age as given in Hurst's film and medical report. (19 in film circa May/June 1918, 20 in report Sept 1918)

I was going along the lines that he may be the Preston with enlistment of Jan 1916, acceptable discharge date but age given as 23 on SWB, not the 20/21 he should have been. In which case the O i/c Records still has the bogus age? If he kept the lie going until blown up and was then in a stupor for another 10 months his real age could only come to light in June 1918 (recovery) or from his father who visited him in Hospital.

Plenty of other possibilities to consider, eg no SWB, also there are some with enlistment dates of late Dec 1915 with no age given.

Thanks

TEW