Conscription Crisis of April 1918

[ddycher]

All

With some trepidation I venture into this.

I have been exploring the response to, and effect of public response to, the Conscription Crisis of April 1918. I am surprised this has had so little coverage todate here.

With respect to my personal research I believe that this directly led to the re-organization of the Reserve Bde's and an extended garrison in Ireland. How this impacted recruiting structures that had stood since the onset of the war and the anglo-ization (is that even a word ?) of the reserve forces in Ireland is something I have been trying to understand for the last month or so.

What I am particularly interested in is the immediate impacts of the intended policy on the ground in Ireland, the content of the TF units now stationed there - i.e. conscripts / recruits vs seasoned troops, invalids etc - and the impacts it had re the forming of the new Irish Reserve Bde then transferred to and being reformed at Larkhill.

I believe it was a small step from here to the War of Independence. I am starting to connect the relieving of these 3rd Line TF units with British Army units which were ultimately to be at the forefront of the events of 1919~1922. The reforming of these reserve troops, and their relatively slow demobbing, after the end of the war is difficult to follow. The forming of the 27th Reserve Bde is proving almost impossible to piece together. Why it was formed, its immediate role, and how long it lasted etc. are proving a stretch too far at the moment.

Large topic I know but I am intrigued to see how fellow forum members view this.

Regards

Dave

[Magnumbellum]

I know nothing of the details discussed, but, for the avoidance of doubt, I can make one matter clear. Having consciously excluded the whole of Irelqnd from the provisions of the Military Service Act 1916, in 1918 the government legislated to anable conscription to be applied in Ireland, but never took steps to put such conscription into practice.

This seems to illustrate ambivalence by the government towards the issue of conscription in Ireland, with, at the end of the day, commonsense prevailing. That commonsense extended to WW2, when conscription was never enacted for Northern Ireland.

[BrendanLee]

Not a subject I have done much research into but I have posted a couple of articles from the Irish Times below relating to recruiting in Ireland in 1918. The second image is bit small, if you want a larger copy let me know, I will split it up and repost it.

28th of September 1918

14th of October 1918

[ddycher]

Both

Thanks for this.

BLee - can read the attachments fine. Thanks for posting.

My understanding from reading so far is that as it became clear that Lloyd George would push for cross Ireland conscription in the April a number of anti conscription protests led by Sinn Fein broke out as early as March. Events above appear to have been in response to these disturbances.

I have a number of ref's that state the US declaration led to the reduced emphasis on conscription in Ireland, have not seen anything yet on government policy though apart from ref's in Hansard.

regards

Dave

[BrendanLee]

I think the role of Sinn Fein in anti-recruitment and anti-conscription in Ireland is grossly exaggerated. Although todays history books attribute the crises totally to Sinn Fein if you look at the newspapers and contemporary accounts of the time there were several very strong sections of society opposed to recruitment and conscription for non-political reasons.

Farmers, who were very strong politically, objected to their sons leaving the farm, possibly never to come back, if was of vital importance that the farm was passed on to a son. It also meant that labour would have to be hired in, an expense that although some farmers could afford was bitterly resented.

Employers of large amounts of able bodied young men, Porters Dockers and so on. Although the 1913 Lockout had severely reduced wages large numbers of young men leaving low paid jobs to join the military resulted in employers having to increase wages and improve conditions to attract men from an ever shrinking labour force.

Recruitment campaigns were organized by the Local Council and the Irish Recruiting Council. If a councillor was pro-conscription but his electorate anti-recruitment he would be more likely to go with his electorate when it came to showing support for a recruitment campaign.

It is also worth noting that in many of the reports in the newspapers of recruiting meetings being interrupted by protesters do not mention any political aspect of the protesters so I think one can assume they were just anti-conscription and not there in support a particular political party or political view.

I think it is also worth noting that when the National Volunteers split over Redmond’s call for them to join the army around 30,000 men left, around 20,000 joined the Irish Volunteers, when the call to action came in 1916 1,000 to 1,500 Irish Volunteers replied. I think this shows that being anti-recruitment did not necessarily mean being pro-nationalists. In 1918 when Sinn Fein and Nationalism had gained considerably more publicity recruitment campaigns could still attract thousands of Irish men. Although Sinn Fein did have a voice in anti-recruiting and anti-conscription campaigns it was not as influential as it is made out to be now.

[ddycher]

BLee

Most of what I have been reading support this.

It seems to point to the fact that anti conscription sentiments was a rallying point and that this ultimately benefited Sinn Fein sympathies rather than being directed by them. Some ref's cite recruiting difficulties as the prime reason for the moving off shore of the reserve forces , the logic here is difficult to follow, and tend to gloss over the conscription issue. That said there can be little doubt that the issue did the Sinn Fein cause no harm.

Would still seem that the response to the threat of conscription drove the garrisoning and the move off shore of the better part of the 15th Reserve Bde. Who made this decision and how it came about still alludes me. The fact that conscription was still a threat right up until the end of the war is telling. I am trying to find references to the English Reserve units being involved in suppressing local disturbances to get a sense of how different their role was (if it was) than the Irish units they replaced.

Regards

Dave