1914 census???

[Olde Crone]

I am reading a novel about WW1 (and it has been historically accurate so far) but it mentions the short-lived "Derby Scheme" by which men could assent to join up if and when they were needed. It quickly became apparent that conscription would be needed because "it was clear that th number of men volunteering under the Derby Scheme was nothng like the number of men of combatant age identified

in a census taken the previous year".

Is this a mistake and is the author referring to the 1911 census, or was there indeed a census taken in 1914/15 to identify men of fighting age and if so, how was this census taken? Not door to door surely? Was the information extrapolated from the 1911 census?

OC

[JBee]

No idea OC but sounds interesting if accurate.

[Olde Crone]

Answered my own question:

The government passed the National Registration Act on 15 July 1915 as a step towards stimulating recruitment and to discover how many men between the ages of 15 and 65 were engaged in each trade. All those in this age range who were not already in the military were obliged to register, giving details of their employment details. The results of this census became available by mid-September 1915: it showed there were almost 5 million males of military age who were not in the forces, of which 1.6m were in the "starred" (protected, high skill) jobs.

I wonder if this National Registration list is in the public domain?

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

Answered my own question:

The government passed the National Registration Act on 15 July 1915 as a step towards stimulating recruitment and to discover how many men between the ages of 15 and 65 were engaged in each trade. All those in this age range who were not already in the military were obliged to register, giving details of their employment details. The results of this census became available by mid-September 1915: it showed there were almost 5 million males of military age who were not in the forces, of which 1.6m were in the "starred" (protected, high skill) jobs.

I wonder if this National Registration list is in the public domain?

OC

Well, you know who will probably know.;););)

[Olde Crone]

Ahem, thankyou Margaret.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

ahem, thankyou margaret.

Oc

:d:d:d:d:d:d:d

[Merry]

I googled "national registration index 1915" and read a thread on the Great War forum where the consensus of opinion seemed to be that the records were held locally and were destroyed at the end of WW1. Not sure they were absolutely certain of that though.........

[Olde Crone]

Merry

that sounds about par for the course. It was just a thought. I expect if this did exist, someone would have known about it before I read this novel, lol!

Mind you, they should really have known all this in 1911 as that is one of the purposes of any census - to find out how many men there are of combatant age. And I do wonder what the compliance rate was of self-reported military fodder!

OC

[anne fraser]

No idea. My mother always said that her father was in a protected occupation as a grocer and my father's father was also protected as a small farmer/market gardener so I think the scope was wider than only highly skilled occupations.

[maggie_4_7]

This give some information on conscription in WWI

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/parliamentary-archives/archives-highlights/archives-ww1-conscription/

[tenterfieldjulie]

In Australia I think you were classified as exempt if your occupation was classified as an essential service eg you ran a dairy farm, not sure if that would be classified as a skilled occupation?

[HarrysMum]

In Australia I think you were classified as exempt if your occupation was classified as an essential service eg you ran a dairy farm, not sure if that would be classified as a skilled occupation?



Or ran a horse farm (eg...Kings Plains) even if they supplied racehorses...lol

How was the weekend?

[Mary from Italy]

I had a look at TNA; they have some correspondence about the registers, but no mention of the registers themselves. Some records from appeal tribunals do survive, though.

[maggie_4_7]

I had a look at TNA; they have some correspondence about the registers, but no mention of the registers themselves. Some records from appeal tribunals do survive, though.

Yes I don't think it was set in stone who was exempt - some were obvious but people could appeal conscription on certain grounds and it would be interesting to see those.

[Nell]

I've got a copy of a letter written by ex's great-grandfather concerning his youngest son's attempt to join up in WW1.

He wrote that he had 3 sons already serving and that if he could get a man in to run his business he would join up himself, but he thought it was a bit too much for the government to expect a 16-year-old boy to fight.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Somewhere amongst all my clutter (I call it precious documents LOL) is a paper exempting my uncle from WW1 conscription as he worked in the shipyard, which was considered to be a reserved occupation.

Jay

[Anstey Nomad]

The Absent Voters List for 1918 for Coventry has been destroyed. I had explained the nature of my query in some detail, but the Archives didn't mention this 1914 assessment at all, just referred me to Ancestry, so I guess the registration lists have gone as well.

My grandad was in a reserved occupation in both World Wars - he worked on the railway.

AN