The 5 jobs which will ‘avoid conscription’ call up if WW3 erupts | UK | News
Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff Lieutenant General Sir Charles Collins said national service was not being considered “at this time”. Instead, senior defense officials told the House of Lords national resilience committee that senior officials were looking at ways to increase the number of regular troops, reservists and civilian volunteers who would be encouraged to help respond in the event of conflict. The United Kingdom has used conscription only twice in the modern era, between 1916 and 1920 and between 1939 and 1960.
While conscription and hopefully another large-scale war seems unlikely, many are still calling for the reintroduction of national service to alleviate military manpower concerns.
If this event were to happen again, we don’t know exactly what it would look like today, but we do have some historical precedent from the last global conflict, World War II.
At that time, there were some important jobs that were considered too important to be drafted into the military. Workers in key industries, particularly bakers, farmers, doctors or nurses, and engineers, were exempt from compulsory military service.
Those who opposed fighting, known as ‘conscientious objectors’, were sent to the courts and then forced to work in non-combatant jobs that aided the war effort in other ways.
The National Service (Armed Forces) Act imposed compulsory military service on all men aged 18 to 41 who were required to register for military service, but those who were medically unfit were exempt.
Conscription played a major role in the conflict and helped to significantly increase Britain’s mass.
It continued during the years from 1949 to 1960, when national service, a standard form of conscription in peacetime, continued.
