Derby Scheme and conscription

[Grey Squirrel]

Can anyone recommend a book on either or both of these topics?

Thanks very much!

grey squirrel

[squirrel]

Charles Messenger's book A Call To Arms covers both pretty well amongst a host of other things.

[doogal]

I was kindly sent an article by forum member gporta. I'll have a look at it tonight - from memory, it covers conscription more than the Derby scheme, but nevertherless is a thorough and relevant article.

I scanned some bits and pieces of an article too - if I still have these, I'll send them to you.

doogal

[gporta]

Ilana Bet-El's book "Conscripts" is a very interesting one on British WW1 Conscripts.

Gloria

[Graham Stewart]

Grey Squirrel,

As well as the two books mentioned above the subject of the Derby Scheme(Group System) and Conscription(Military Services Act) is covered in detail in newspapers of the time. References can also be found in Army Council Instructions.

Graham.

[Grey Squirrel]

Thanks, fellas... I've just ordered "Conscripts" on your recommendations! I managed to find it reduced in price (£3.99) at ww.psbooks.co.uk.

I'm going to have to save up a while for "Call to Arms", which seems to sell for £30 or so.

If anyone else has any suggested reading, I'm all ears...

[Charles Fair]

The Conscription Controversy in Great Britain 1900-1918

by RJQ Adams & PP Poirier (Ohio UP 1987)

heavyweight focusing on the political aspects, 3/4 of the book covers 1914-18

there is also a useful chapter on the coming of conscription in the essential "Kitchener's Army" by Peter Simkins (Manchester UP 1988)

Charles

[spike10764]

Ilana Bet-El's book "Conscripts" is a very interesting one on British WW1 Conscripts.

Gloria

Just borrowed this from my local library. I'm going to read it (when I've finished With the German Guns by H Sulzbach) and will do a review when I've finished it.

[Bart150]

QUOTE (gporta @ Jan 9 2006, 01:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ilana Bet-El's book "Conscripts" is a very interesting one on British WW1 Conscripts.

Gloria

Just borrowed this from my local library. I'm going to read it (when I've finished With the German Guns by H Sulzbach) and will do a review when I've finished it.

Have you finished 'Conscripts' yet, Spike?

Somehow I had the impression that this book would be about matters specifically relating to Conscripts as opposed to eg, Volunteers, Regulars, Reservists.

However, the current review on Amazon clearly states that is not the case.

Anybody know any different?

[WalkEric]

I think 'Conscripts' is largely based on this dissertation by the same author - http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317760/1/283598.pdf

[Bart150]

Thanks for that excellent tip! The following is my review of the dissertation:

In the introduction I read that the author had collected and studied a set of private papers (ie letters, diaries and any other written accounts) from the IWM of British soldiers who were conscripts; she had items from just over 50 men. Her work’s focus is ‘upon the human experience of these men, rather than upon the military one. Instead of battles and shells it is a discussion of baths and food.’

This prompted in me the reaction that the baths and food of conscript soldiers were probably not much different from those of regulars or reservists or volunteers or territorials. If so, the scope of the work would be as daftly arbitrary as one about the baths and food of soldiers whose names began with the letter ‘R’ or soldiers with ginger hair or soldiers who played chess.

The early chapters are not about ‘baths and food’. They deal with the administrative aspects of conscription. If you are particularly interested in that, you may well find some of the material here useful.

Out of 321 double-spaced pages, pages 79 to 267 are the main ‘baths and food’ part of the work. There is material based on the soldiers’ private papers about food, cleanliness, health, clothing, fatigues, living accommodation, censorship, leave, pay, discipline and so on. This evidence happens to have come from soldiers who were conscripts, but it could just as well have come from soldiers who were volunteers or whose names began with the letter ‘R’. Indeed, a couple of times the author acknowledges this. The material is essentially about the experience of all British soldiers on the Western Front.

I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised if the examiners for the degree of PhD at University College London judged that this dissertation was intellectually flawed. It claims to be specifically about conscripts but in fact it isn’t. Nevertheless, it may well be that you personally don’t care about that, and you do like the idea of a work about the ‘baths and food’ experiences of British soldiers on the Western Front. If so this is worth getting.