Exploring the Archives; World War I

Today I got the chance to do my first exploration of the archives – I decided to have a quick look at what we have relating to World War I and I checked our ephemera and image archives. The material I found gives a snapshot of life in WW1 – showing conscription, exemption, and entering the army.

Firstly I found some certificates stating people who had been registered under the national registration act 1915. This was introduced to stimulate army enlistment and to determine how many men there were who would be eligible to enter the army. On the 27th January 1916 the Military Service Act was passed, and all voluntary enlistment was stopped as conscription was introduced for men aged between 19 and 41 who were unmarried or a widower. In 1916 the age was dropped to 18, and the act extended to married men.

I also found a certificate of exemption dated 1917. The Military Service Act of 1916 brought conscription into effect, avoidable only with a certificate of exemption. This example is for Samuel Downs, and states that he is exempted on the condition that he continues with his occupation as an overlooker and joins the Volunteer Training Corps. The certificate is valid from it’s issue on the 4th January 1917 to the 31st March 1914.

There is no further information offered, so I have been unable to determine exactly what his job role was, or which industry he worked in.

There were also two cards given to soldiers when entering the army – the first was a compulsory registration for the forces, the second an unemployment card issues on entry to the forces. It seems strange that soldiers would be issued with an unemployment form when they were entering employment in the army, but it relates to their unemployment insurance in accordance to a law passed in 1911. On leaving the army, soldiers were given a months paid leave and were entitled to six months unemployment benefit. If they still hadn’t found a job after this time they would have to apply for the dole. Unemployment was a problem after the war with many men returning from the army and unable to find a job, so in 1920 The Unemployment Insurance Act was introduced so the unemployed could claim 15 shillings each week for a maximum of 15 weeks of the year.

Finally, I found some photographs in our image archive which show soldiers of WW1 – they all look very smart in their uniforms, and many of them look very young.