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Rushden Echo, 25th February 1916, transcribed by Gill Hollis
The Military Service Act
We have received a number of inquiries from unmarried men who, under Lord Derby’s recruiting scheme, were rejected as being medically unfit, but who have received notices to report themselves on March 4th under the Military Service Act. The question has been put to us; Can men be legally called up under such circumstances? We wish, in the most emphatic manner possible, to point out that men who, under Lord Derby’s scheme, have at any time since August 14th last year been medically rejected as unfit, do not come within the scope of the new Act. They are as truly exempt from military service as if they were clergymen or ministers, or, say, eighty years of age. Compulsion does not apply to them. The new Act does not touch them. Men who have thus been called up should at once return the notice to the Recruiting Officer for the District – addressed, in the case of residents in East Northamptonshire, to the Drill Hall, Kettering – stating that they possess Army certificates of medical unfitness.
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Rushden Echo, 26th May 1916, transcribed by Gill Hollis
Conscription
Yesterday the new Military Service Bill received the Royal Assent, and conscription has thus become the law of the land. Its main object is definitely stated to be “to make further provision with respect to military service during the present war,” and, purely as a temporary measure, it will be accepted by the country. Every male British subject in England, Scotland and Wales – but not in Ireland – between the ages of 18 and 41, will, on June 24th, become a soldier. The only exceptions are men ordinarily living abroad, or living in England only for their education; clergymen and ministers of all denominations; men discharged from the Army or Navy on account of disablement or ill-health; men who hold a certificate of exemption granted by a Tribunal, or a doctor’s certificate of rejection given after August 14th, 1915 (which may be withdrawn); and any person who has at any time since the beginning of hostilities been a prisoner of war, captured or interned by the enemy, and has been released or exchanged. With regard to the doctor’s certificate of rejection, the new Act provides that it may be withdrawn “if the Army Council is satisfied that he should again present himself for medical examination, and send him written notice to that effect before September 1st, 1916.” The Appeals Tribunals remain as before, and the procedure with regard to claims for exemption remains unaltered. The King, in a message to the nation, issued last night, mentions with pride the fact the fact that no fewer than 5,041,000 men have joined the Forces voluntarily since the commencement of the war, “an effect,” says His Majesty, “far surpassing that of any other nation in similar circumstances recorded in history.”
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