Due to the carnage and mounting casualties incurred by the British Army in the first two years of the War, the British Government was pressurised into introducing a succession of Military Service Acts. Each Act shows the increasing desperation of a government struggling to find people to send to their deaths in the fields of a foreign country. January 1916 The first Military Service Act was passed. This Act called for the compulsory enlistment of unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 41. May 1916 Military Service Act (2) was introduced which brought all men regardless of marital status between the ages of 18 and 41, under the provisions of the existing Military Service Act. It also allowed the War Office to extend the service of time-expired men whilst there was a war and to re-examine men rejected as physically unfit. April 1917 Military Service Act (3) was introduced which called for the examination of Home Service Territorial, men discharged in consequence of disablement or ill-health and those previously rejected for service. A new schedule of Protected Occupations was also announced. January 1918 Military Service Act (4) was passed. Further exemptions were removed including the following: 1. It empowered the government to quash all exemptions on occupational grounds. 2. It also abolished the two month grace period allowed to workers in cases where exemptions had been withdrawn. April 1918 Military Service Act (5) was introduced. This was the most drastic act yet, increasing the eligibility of male civilians even further. It lowered the minimum age of liability to 17 and increased the maximum age to 55. The law was extended to include Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It also called for the abolition of the tribunal system. Released or exchanged prisoners of war were no longer exempt and provision was made for the recall of time-expired soldiers. Sources re Conscription Conscription and conscience: a history 1916-1919 by John W. Graham. - London: Allen and Unwin, 1922. Conscience and politics: the British government and the conscientious objector to military service 1916-1919 John Rae. - London: Oxford University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-19-215176-2 The Times history of the war: 22 volumes - London: The Times, [1914-1920] - 22 vols. Volume XIX, pages 379-382.
