WW1 and life in Jersey – 6 Conscription
Life in Jersey
during the Great War:
Conscription
The introduction to the Military Service Law passed by the States in 1917
This is one of a series of articles on various aspects of life in Jersey during the 1914-1918 war which is based on newspaper reports and archived documents. We acknowledge the valuable resource of a weekly series of articles by historian Ian Ronayne which was published on the Jersey Heritage website from 2014 to 2018 to mark the centenary of the conflict
Although hundreds of men left Jersey to join the Armed Services at the outbreak of the war – either reservists or young volunteers – and were soon joined by the Jersey Contingent, recruited from the island's militia, many more had no choice but to join the Army as conscripts.
Volunteers encouraged
But before Jersey was forced to follow the United Kingdom in introducing compulsory military service, there were many attempts to encourage volunteers to join up.
The situation which those serving in the Militia – the great majority of men of military age – found themselves in must have been confusing, because initially they were not allowed to leave the island to join up, but in October 1915 there were grand recruiting rallies, organised by the Lieut-Governor with States support.
This was part of a nationwide campaign to avoid conscription by finding sufficient numbers of volunteers to swell the numbers of the Army and other services.
This did nothing to convince those detractors who accused Jersey of not doing enough to aid the war effort, but a few weeks later the Attorney-Genera reported to the States that over 1,000 local men had volunteered since the start of the war, on top of nearly 1,000 who were already serving at the outbreak, and nearly 2,500 French reservists who had returned to their regiments.
As 1916 dawned, an initiative by the Dean, the Very Rev Samuel Falle, saw island women leaving to work in war-related industry in Birmingham, although not all were happy with the conditions they encountered. By March both Jersey and Guernsey were considering how to react to the introduction of conscription in the UK. The Military Service Act did not automatically apply to the islands, but there was little doubt that they would have to follow suit.
Labour needed for farms
But the biggest dilemma was how Jersey could require its able-bodied men to leave to fight without depriving the island, particularly its agricultural industry, of essential labour. And it was a dilemma which would never be fully resolved over the next two years of conflict.
The States agreed to the principle of compulsory military service, but expected the island's needs to be balanced against those of the wider British Isles. Legislation was drafted, but, not for the first time, nor the last, the Lieut-Governor was unhappy with the provisions to exempt islanders from its rules. He was adamant that Jersey would send every available man to war; the States wanted to ensure that sufficient remained to work the farms.
And as more pressure was put on young women to leave to undertake war work in the UK, so that was resisted because it was suggested that they should be kept back to replace the men who were leaving to fight. Jersey's Military Service Act was finally passed and received Royal assent in February 1917, a full year after compulsory military service was introduced in the UK. Tribunals were set up to decide on individual claims for exemption, which usually related to agricultural work.
Several thousand men lodged complaints, which annoyed the Lieut-Governor intensely and would provide much work for the tribunals established by Parish Constables. At the same time the UK Government not only wanted more soldiers; it wanted more potatoes to be exported.
By April call-up papers were dropping through the letterboxes of 18-year-olds, requiring them to report, without delay, for medical examination at Fort Regent, before being sent to join the Hampshire and Dorsetshire Regiments.
Within weeks it became clear that many of these did not meet Army fitness requirements and were being discharged and sent back to Jersey. And although conscientious objection to military service was not recognised as part of the island's appeal procedure, it appears that it was on the other side of the Channel, with at least on claimant being successful under English law.
5,000 volunteers and conscripts
In October 1917 it was announced that 1,300 men had been called up to serve in the previous seven months; this brought the total number of volunteers and conscripts since the war began to over 5,000 and there were clear signs that businesses, particularly farms, were suffering from the resulting labour shortage.
There were fears of what would happen if the war continued into 1918, and when it did, with the number of able-bodied men available to protect the island in the event of an enemy attack continuing to decline, the Lieut-Governor proposed the creation of a new, part-time unit – the Island Defence Force – from men exempted from military service.
And still the demand for men to serve in the armed services continued and in June 1918 – nobody knew that the war would be over in five months – the upper age limit for conscription was raised by ten years to 51, and those previously exempted from service were required to reapply if they wanted to avoid conscription.
