Enlistment and Draft

[gporta]

I have the article now at hand. It was written by Dr. Ian F.W. Beckett and was originally published in "the Great War" November 1989 issue. the title is "The real unknown army. British conscripts 1916-1919" and gives interesting information about Conscription and the circumstances leading to it, including info on the Derby scgeme. It contains a good deal of bibliographic reference for further research.

The Derby Scheme registered all men of military age and encouraged them to attest their willingness to serve. When Conscription was established, the norm seemed to be to call first those without family duties (i.e. single men) and "Groups" of derby Scheme men were called up alongside conscripts' "Classes": i.e. it could be the case that a young single 18-year old was called in early 1916, while a married Derby man with children would be called up later.

Drop me a line if you are interested in the article and can't locate a copy of the magazine.

Gloria

[Guest mruk]

Many Thanks for your time on this Gloria,

I've just had a quick mooch around and it seems the book is on sale for £17.99. It looks like a good investment if the reviews are anything to go by, and I'll also take your recommendation regarding the article. Much Appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Dave

[gporta]

Dave,

Is the book you mention is Ilana Bet El book about Great War British conscripts?

Gloria

[Guest mruk]

Hi Gloria,

It's called 'The Great War' by Ian Beckett. I think it's a monograph from which the article was probably taken. Or the other way round, with one leading to the other.

Cheers,

Dave

[Guest mruk]

Gloria,

there's also a host of other works by Ian [FW] Beckett, including:

The First World War: The Essential Guide to the National Archives [2002]

The Home Front 1914-1918: How Britain Survived the War [2006]

Haig's Generals [2006]

and many others.

Regards,

Dave

[gporta]

Dave,

The article was published in a magazine called "The Great War. The illustrated Journal of First World War History" a very good magazine which was published in the late eighties. It contained articles by diverse knowledgeable contributors. I'm not sure if Becket included it in his "Great War" book.

Gloria

[Guest mruk]

Thanks Gloria,

That was a nice coincidence. I've just sent an E-mail, and managed to locate the book. I'll check the journals, they might have something there. Thanks for your help.

Kind Regards,

Dave

[Petroc]

I have the article now at hand. It was written by Dr. Ian F.W. Beckett and was originally published in "the Great War" November 1989 issue. the title is "The real unknown army. British conscripts 1916-1919" and gives interesting information about Conscription and the circumstances leading to it, including info on the Derby scgeme. It contains a good deal of bibliographic reference for further research.

The Derby Scheme registered all men of military age and encouraged them to attest their willingness to serve. When Conscription was established, the norm seemed to be to call first those without family duties (i.e. single men) and "Groups" of derby Scheme men were called up alongside conscripts' "Classes": i.e. it could be the case that a young single 18-year old was called in early 1916, while a married Derby man with children would be called up later.

Drop me a line if you are interested in the article and can't locate a copy of the magazine.

Gloria

Gloria;

As the 'last throw of the voluntary dice' the Derby Scheme did indeed register men according to their willingness to serve and categorised them along lines of age, marital status, offspring and occupation. Many married men (otherwise non-military minded) attested their willingness to serve on the assurance that the younger single blokes single, may be required to fulfill their promise to enlist first. On the almost inevitable failure of the Scheme, and given the national reservations concerning conscription, this policy was applied to the first Military Service Act, which assured the country that, again, the younger, single 'unstarred' men would be enlisted first...giving it the contemporary label of 'The Bachelor's Bill'

[gporta]

Hi Petroc,

Thanks for the information ("The Bachelor's Bill" ) I think all the matter of enlistment in Britain is very interesting: Volunteering, Derby Scheme, conscription (and the resulting CO cases). Maybe because the Old Comptemptibles and pre-war territorials and those answering Kitchener's call are better documented, these other men often don't get much attention, and I think that it is a pity as that leaves many stories undocumented.

There's a subtext under many Derby Scheme enlistments that makes some cases very close to actual Conscription, due to social or peer pressure (i.e. a man who knew that would be inevitably conscripted after january 1916), may have opted for a last chance to volunteer.

As compared with the early volunteers, Later enlistments (Derby men) and Conscripts seem to lack historical "glamour"... but let's not forget that the winning army of 1918 had a high percentage of such men.

Gloria

[Petroc]

Very true; and I suspect may 'voluntarily attested' under the Derby Scheme knowing that their call-up was inevitable, and maybe suspecting the logical introduction of conscription, but hoping that maybe the war would come to a conclusion before their time came!

As for the conscription historiography; again I agree, there is far too little academic and enthusiastic literature available, and these invaluable troops need their due recognition. Bet-El had a fine notion in mind when she wrote her book a few years ago but unfortunately, apart from the crucial appreciation of society's distinction between the 'heroic volunteer' and the surly pressed-man, the book is seriously flawed....for instance, she devotes too much time to the conscripts' preoccupation with food, pay and shelter; surely these concerns were common to every fighting force through history, from Rome's Legions to Wellington's 'Scum of the Earth'?!!

[gporta]

Petroc,

You're right that the concerns about food, pay, shelter and woodbines, etc... were common to the vast majority of soldiers, Volunteer and Conscript alike.

I suppose that Bet El wanted to stress the fact about the largely undesired miscomforts of front-line life for the compulsory soldier, but must be said, as you note, that those same miscomforts were shared by those who volunteered (and even though they had volunteered, I don't think that they expected, when they enlisted, to experience the war they experienced: maybe many a volunteer and, I'm sure, regulars, might have thought twice if they had been able to see the destructive warfare and living conditions that awaited them through a crystal ball).

However, with all the faults that the book might have, I consider it a valuable contribution to a rather virgin historical territoire.

Indeed , the post-1914 and early 1915 British enlistments require a closer look by the historians, and further analysis might throw a fair number of volunteers who might have not joined unless for external prsssures, as well as a fair number of teens, reaching military age in the two last years of war, who might have volunteered all the same if Conscription had not been introduced (for not all the youth of Britain enlisted under age in 1914-15).

Conscripts benefited from a more regularized calling-up system (so the training reserves wouldn't be flooded with men they couldn't give training and equipment), a more advanced -an appropiate- training (benefiting from the trench war experience of front-line soldiers) and indeed, from not having a naive view of war: they knew already that war wouldn't be over by Christmas... Those men constituted the majority of available British manpower in late 1917 and 1918, and I think that, while having been pushed into service, they carried on with their duty well enough.

As you say, the story of Conscripts (and Derby men) awaits for a historical revision.

Gloria

[andyspiller]

Pals

Just been going through g-fathers diary, he notes

Date rejected 09/12/1915

Joined 13/12/1916

Left Rugeley 08/01/1917

At Inchkeith 10/01/1917

Arr Plymouth 21/07/1918

Left Plymouth 28/08/1918

Arr France 29/08/1918

Left Italy 07/09/1918

Arr Bombay 23/09/1918

Left Bombay 24/09/1918

Arr Culcutta 26/09/1918

Left Culcutta 02/10/1918

Arr Rangoon 04/10/1918

Arr King Bank 07/10/1918

Left King Bank 15/11/1918

Left Rangoon 20/11/1918

Arr Poona 26/11/1918

Rifle handed in 26/12/1918

Left Poona 31/10/1919

Arr Deobali (No 6 camp) 01/11/1919

RAMC Concentration Camp 05/11/1919

Rgds

Andy

[papadelta23]

Hello, I am writing from Canada and am currently researching a book on Canadian conscripts. I am interested in obtaining a copy of Beckett's article cited below. Can you help? Thank you.

Patrick

I have the article now at hand. It was written by Dr. Ian F.W. Beckett and was originally published in "the Great War" November 1989 issue. the title is "The real unknown army. British conscripts 1916-1919" and gives interesting information about Conscription and the circumstances leading to it, including info on the Derby scgeme. It contains a good deal of bibliographic reference for further research.

The Derby Scheme registered all men of military age and encouraged them to attest their willingness to serve. When Conscription was established, the norm seemed to be to call first those without family duties (i.e. single men) and "Groups" of derby Scheme men were called up alongside conscripts' "Classes": i.e. it could be the case that a young single 18-year old was called in early 1916, while a married Derby man with children would be called up later.

Drop me a line if you are interested in the article and can't locate a copy of the magazine.

Gloria