Ancestors

[Lewis Sullivan]

Hi all,

Is there any legitimate reasons for males not serving in the war other than medical grounds and reserved occupations. I've scoured my family tree and while on my fathers side there were a lot of family members who served even with medical issues and age inappropriateness worming their way in....on my mothers side all the males who appear to be the right age don't seem to have served. I was wandering why this might be. They don't seem to have reserved occupations and id find it hard to believe they all had medical issues. It's slightly confusing. 

 

thanks Lew.

[John_Hartley]

42 minutes ago, Lewis Sullivan said:

all the males who appear to be the right age don't seem to have served.

What are you basing this assumption on?

[Ron Clifton]

Conscientious objectors, particularly for religious reasons?

 

Ron

[Dave66]

I know my late uncle was excempt from ww2 service and his national service as he was studying for his "articles" as a chartered surveyor.

Not sure if the same applied during the ww1 period, but professional qualifications may be an avenue that could be looked into.

 

Merry Christmas to all,

 

Dave.

[tootrock]

Presumably it was not a case that everyone was called up except those in reserved occupations. The country had to carry on "as normal" despite there being a war on.

 

Martin

[kenf48]

8 hours ago, Lewis Sullivan said:

Hi all,

Is there any legitimate reasons for males not serving in the war other than medical grounds and reserved occupations. I've scoured my family tree and while on my fathers side there were a lot of family members who served even with medical issues and age inappropriateness worming their way in....on my mothers side all the males who appear to be the right age don't seem to have served. I was wandering why this might be. They don't seem to have reserved occupations and id find it hard to believe they all had medical issues. It's slightly confusing. 

 

thanks Lew.

 

The'legitimate reasons'  for not serving after the introduction of conscription were defined by the Military Service Act 1916

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/enlisting-into-the-army/the-1916-military-service-act/

 

As noted above what evidence are you basing the above assumption upon?

 

They may have served under an assumed name, there may be misspelling, if you are relying on the online records there are many examples of poor indexing and if you are relying on the medal records they may not have been entitled.

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

The MSA was not applied to men normally resident in Ireland, as just one large example. This did not prevent Irish residents volunteering. Physical shortcomings (height) and age (despite being healthy) were other reasons outside the Reserved Occupations. I think some people serving in the Red Cross and other civilian organisations supporting the Military may have been exempt. Not sure about Merchant Marine. MG

 

[Dave66]

Many records from the Great War period simply did not survive, I can find no military records for my grandfather who was awarded the M.C but can trace his service through the gazette only. It sometimes takes an awful lot of head scratching per person to get a foot hold, with variations of spellings and wrongly indexed files etc. A families social class would also play a big part, if wealthy and educated I would start with the London gazette, as officers promotions would always be announced, other ranks are sadly less well documented. If they served overseas or remained at home that would also make a difference.

 

Best of luck,

 

Dave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TTracer44]

There are other ways in which these men could have served there country,  Rutland the smallest county produced 800 to 900 special constables for the war effort, hundreds of men joined the Volenteer force, the WW1 version of the home guard, so not all men who do not appear on militery records were without a cause.

       We are lucky in Rutland in that we have a source to check on what the unmilitary males were doing, not always the case.

[Lewis Sullivan]

Hi all thanks for the replies some interesting ideas.

 

I know all their ages...well what the census notes them as.  My assumption is based off the fact I can't find any records at all of any service for any of the males after extensive searching with the help of other relatives .

 

I've also spoke to elder family members and they have no recollection of their grandparents or parents serving or telling any one they had served.

 

I just find it hard to believe for such a patriotic country at the time not one of them served and yet on my fathers side they were jumping at the chance to serve for king and country.

 

My father's paternal family are southern Irish from co cork which as you may know was the rebel county. So this is even stranger that they served but never the less 😂.

 

Hope you all have a great Christmas.

Lew

Edited 25 December , 2017 by Lewis Sullivan

[kenf48]

18 hours ago, Lewis Sullivan said:

 

I just find it hard to believe for such a patriotic country at the time not one of them served and yet on my fathers side they were jumping at the chance to serve for king and country.

 

My father's paternal family are southern Irish from co cork which as you may know was the rebel county. So this is even stranger that they served but never the less 😂.

 

 

As Martin noted at post 7 conscription never applied to Ireland, though I don’t recall you said that was where your ancestors were domiciled.

 

However in 1914 John Redmond encouraged the majority of the Irish Volunteers to join the British Army, raising two New Army Irish Divisions, The 10th and 16th (Irish) Divisions.   His expectation were a short war and that the nationalist volunteers would counter balance the UVF who were also mobilising.  

He anticipated his men would form an Irish Army after the inevitable victory.  His actions caused a schism in the Volunteers and about 10,000 refused to join the British.  Perhaps that was the reason on your mother’s side, then again as discussed on another recent thread most Irish recruits came from the cities and conurbations rather than the country.

 

Ken 

Edited 26 December , 2017 by kenf48

[Wexflyer]

Not a one of my direct ancestors or their brothers and uncles served in the British army in WWI, and there were quite a few of them. However, several served in other capacities.