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Remembered Today:

Fit for military duty?


KateJ

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Below is from a local newspaper. What is "B1"? I can't work out if this man was conscripted or was going to be conscripted in one months time. Can someone help.

Kate

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Essex County Chronicle - 12 October 1917

County tribunals – Dunmow. George Edward Robson, 29, married, tailor, Dunmow, appealed and put in a medical certificate that he was suffering from the effects of an operation. Mr Orfeur for Robson said this was essentially a one-man business which would have to be closed if he went to the war. Robson’s brother had been killed in the war, and the workman had been taken prisoner so that the three men originally in the business had been reduced to one. He had been examined by the Central Medical Board by order of the Dunmow Tribunal and had been classed B1. Mr Orfeur said in addition to the business hardship, Robson had three complaints. The Chairman: You have appealed to Caesar and must take the result; we cannot go behind the Central Medical Board in the matter of health. Robson said the profits of his business was about £75 per year. Capt Howard said separation pay would amount to almost £75 a years: tailors were wanted. – Dismissed; one month allowed.

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Below is from a local newspaper. What is "B1"? I can't work out if this man was conscripted or was going to be conscripted in one months time. Can someone help.

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Kate

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Someone on the forum will have the real answer but until they get around to it, I think that the man appealed against being conscripted grade B1. This grade would have meant him going overseas but probably not into a fighting unit. He might have ended up in a Labour Company or some such. He seems to have appealed against the actual grading. The grade was confirmed and so he was going to have to go. The stuff about his circumstances was accepted but deemed irrelevant because he had appealed on medical grounds. He was given 1 month to get ready. That is how I read the piece but it is mainly conjecture.

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Thank you! That makes perfect sense.

Kate

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Kate,

medical categories have been dealt with in previous threads such as this recent one . One of the contributors suggested this informative article on Chris Baker's mother site.

Gloria

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