Conscription of married men comes into force

On 24 June 1916 came the so-called appointed date of the second British Military Service Act, which since 25 May had extended conscription to married men aged 18 to 41 as well. From that day all men covered by it, unless they fell under the exceptions or had obtained exemption, were deemed to have enlisted in the army for the duration of the war and to have been immediately transferred to the reserve, from which the army could call them up to their units. The Act set this day as the thirtieth day after its passing. The Act itself did not provide for a separate date of entry into force, so it was in force from the Royal Assent on 25 May. The British chronology of the war states that it came into force on 8 June, but the text of the Act does not confirm this date. The first weeks of June were a time of preparation for 24 June.

Proclamations and notices

On 1 June the Under-Secretary of State for War, Harold Tennant, informed the House of Commons that proclamations were being posted throughout the country announcing that all married men covered by the new Act could be called up for service from 24 June. Each of them, provided his address in the 1915 National Register was up to date, was to receive a written notice. Anyone who did not receive such a notice had to report on his own to the nearest recruiting office by 24 July at the latest. By an Order of the King in Council of the same day new regulations were issued on the tribunals hearing applications for exemption from service. They replaced the successive orders of February and March. A separate order concerned the so-called trade committees.

Until 24 June married men who had not enlisted under the Derby Scheme could still join the army as volunteers or apply for exemption. Tennant also explained that the drafts for each regiment were taken first from men fit for service in the regiment’s own recruiting area, and only when the regiment needed no more men were recruits sent to other units.

In the shadow of Kitchener’s death

The conscription machinery was starting up just as the War Office lost its head. On 5 June Lord Kitchener, who since August 1914 had been building a new British army out of volunteers, was killed aboard the cruiser Hampshire. The War Office was temporarily run by the Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, and parliament, which had risen for a recess on 1 June, did not meet again until 20 June. On the very first day after their return members argued at length about the fate of the conscientious objectors.

From 24 June married men in Britain were by law soldiers of the reserve. From then on only a tribunal or a medical board could release them from service, and the army sent out call-up notices gradually, according to need. A week later the British Army began the offensive on the Somme, which within a few months consumed hundreds of thousands of men and hastened the call-up of new age groups.