call up or not?

[rowan]

Can anyone tell me what reasons men were exempt from call up in the war please?

My Father died in August 1940 at the age of 23yrs. Would he have been called up at this time or would he have been exempt..... if so what would the reasons for exemption have been?

At the time of his death he was a gunmaker. He died from meningitis and TB.

 

[sylviasayers]

Call up or not

Rowan, your dad would have been in a "protected job" his work was just as vital as being a soldier. Other people who worked on the railways, mines and other skilled jobs making arms were deemed very important to the war effort., and were not called up.

 

[rowan]

Thank you Sylvia......I never knew my Dad as he died 2 months before I was born and my Mother would never talk about him.........which was ashame as we can't "put meat on the bones" so to speak.

 

[sylviasayers]

Call up or not

Rowan, I'm so sorry you never knew your father, it must have been devastating for your mother, expecting a baby and losing her husband when they were both so young.

 

[jennyann]

Ditto to Sylvia's post re your Father. His profession would definitely have exempted him from being called up. My father was deemed an essential job holder but I think he was too old to serve anyway since he was born in l905. At the time of WW2 he worked in Bournville Power Station keeping the electric supply going. It was a very difficult job and a long way to cycle from Erdington in the blackout to do nights, kept company by mice and a cat!

 

[Beryl M]

There are a few reasons why some people were exempt from the call up.

• Registered as a C.O. on religious grounds
• Coal Miner
• Steel Worker
• Munitions
• Physical Disabilities
• Medical Problems
• Age not over 51
• Vital Government Work

A lot of women did fill some of these jobs so men were not except. . .