British military service tribunals, 1916-1918

by James McDermott

This is the first substantial analysis of the work of British Military Service Tribunals, established in 1916 to adjudicate applications for exemption from military service (partial conscription was introduced in January 1916 and its scope expanded by successive Military Service Acts). Staffed entirely by civilian volunteers, these bodies tried to balance the needs of the Army with those of industry and their local community. Typically, they failed to please anyone. Regarded as obstructionist old duffers by the Army and as unfeeling servants of the state by everyone else, they were hampered...