This descriptive audio clip features the arrival of British troops in France, when rising casualty figures and insufficient volunteers led to the introduction of conscription in Britain in January 1916. At that time there were 987,000 British troops in France.
The Military Service Act 1916 and recruitment by Class:
Disappointed at the results of the Derby Scheme, 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 - that is, they were conscripted - if they were aged between 18 and 41 and resided in Great Britain (excluding Ireland) and were unmarried or a widower on 2 November 1915. Conscripted men were no longer given a choice of which service, regiment or unit they joined, although if a man preferred the navy it got priority to take him. This act was extended to married men on 25 May 1916.
A system of appeals tribunals was established, to hear cases of men who believed they were disqualified on the grounds of ill-health, occupation or conscientious objection. Some trades were deemed to be vital to the war economy: the were called starred occupations
The Act initially failed to deliver: only 43,000 of the men called up qualified for general service in the army. Another 93,000 failed to appear when called up, filling the courts. 748,587 men claimed some form of exemption, filling the tribunals. In addition were the 1,433,827 already starred as being in a war occupation, or those who were ill or who had already been discharged on these grounds. The manpower of the army never caught up with its planned establishment.
From September 1916, men called up were first assigned to a unit of the Training Reserve. It had been found that the traditional regimental means of training was not keeping up with the flood of men coming through, and the TR was established as a means of doing so.
A further extension of the Act on 10 April 1918, followed a serious political crisis concerning the provision of manpower - which along with a large extension of the British section of the Western Front, was cited as a prime cause of the defeat of the Fifth Army in March 1918. This act reduced the minimum age of recruitment to 18.
The introduction of conscription made it very much more difficult for a recruit to falsify his age and name.
Conscription ceased on 11 November 1918 and all conscripts were discharged, if they had not already been so, on 31 March 1920.
