Scotland - Essential Worker/Unfit for Service WWII

[JanetM]

Would a military exemption record exist for essential workers? Also would there be a record of exemption based on partial deafness - believed to have driven an ambulance instead? If so, where would I find them?

[momat]

Interested in seeing what comes up here as I have tried to find similar, as my uncle was evidently driving an Ambulance in Glasgow during WW11 due to his poor eyesight having
kept him from the Forces.

Cheers,

[JanetM]

Hi Maureen

My Dad wasn't sent to fight because he was deaf in his left ear due to a mastoid operation he had about age 5. I'm not sure if these jobs were under the auspices of the army (and records exist) or not - I'm sure you're wondering the same ! I'm sure your Uncle and certainly my Dad would have been called up if the war had lasted any longer. Many of my relatives fought (big family) and I'm not aware of a single one who didn't come back intact. Maybe I just haven't come across them yet, as our previous generations weren't ones to bemoan their lot.

[JanetM]

Hi Maureen

Meant to say, my Dad would have been driving an ambulance in Glasgow too!!!

Janet

[momat]

Hello Janet,

I have been unsuccessful searching for records for this situation, but there must be some data as EVERYONE was registered in times of war !!

Cheers,

[StewL]

Hi all
My late father was exempt from war service, he was a plater in John Browns, but he was in the Home Guard, he said his post was in the shipyard with other home guard men who worked in the shipyard. The only thing he ever mentioned about it was being on duty in the shipyard during the Clydebank blitz, the noise and that the shipyard was hardly touched by the bombing, apart from that he never talked about it.

[JanetM]

Hi Stewie

Your Dad would have been classed as an essential worker. My Husband's Dad at that time worked in the shipyard in Greenock and he was too. He later became a teacher and then a principal teacher. The home guard would have been in addition to that. The blitz in Clydebank is still talked about today and I'm pretty sure you could find a whole raft of information on it. It would be worth contacting John Brown's shipyard to find out if they have records of your Dad.

Regards
Janet

[JanetM]

Hi Maureen

I think that's a fair point! Unfortunately, the classification "unfit for service" seems to have covered everyone with a genuine disability (ie your Uncle and my Dad) to those who were just degenerate characters, but they would have been recorded somewhere. Knowing my Dad, he would have done his bit regardless - he was always a worker!

Lets keep hoping - otherwise writing to Army records might be the option. In fact, just off to Facebook my friend whose husband is a musician in the army - he might be able to ask the question.

I will get back to you later.

Regards
Janet

[WilmaM]

Hello Janet,

I have been unsuccessful searching for records for this situation, but there must be some data as EVERYONE was registered in times of war !!

Cheers,

As Janet says there was mass registration during the War - 1939 National Identity Register. you can in actual fact apply for the details from that register.
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/h ... ister.html

[Currie]

If you want a list of reserved occupations you’ll find them on a 1939 newspaper page in this thread. They changed over time.
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/united-kin ... tions.html

If they were employed as Ambulance drivers etc during WW2 as members of the military, perhaps Royal Army Service Corps, their file should still be with Ministry of Defence. I believe QE2, when she was PE, was in the army during WW2 as an ambulance driver with the ATS.

If they weren’t in the Army, I’m wondering whose ambulance would they have driven, and who would have paid them, and if they were civilians and volunteers who would have ensured they turned up for work each day?

Just as a matter of interest, during WW1 the Military Service Tribunals heard the cases of those applying for exemption from conscription. The Tribunal’s records were destroyed in 1921, except for some kept as samples. Lothian and Peebles Tribunal was one of those retained. Anyone interested can read all about it here. http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/081103.asp

Alan