Next Post Back to previous post
The committee, chaired by T H W Pelham, a senior civil servant, was set up by the Board of Trade in March 1916 to enable conditionally exempted men to find Work of National Importance (WNI). Its official title was the Committee on Work of National Importance; it was entirely distinct from the Brace Committee, supervising the Home Office Scheme.
Work of National Importance was a phrase inserted into the Military Service Act to satisfy popular pressure that any compulsory civilian work undertaken by COs in lieu of military service had to be arduous and in the “national” interest.
On 14 April a preliminary list of suitable occupations was produced but the work eventually undertaken by the majority of conscientious objectors who were mostly sent to work in agriculture and food production. Pelham is quoted as saying that his Committee was ‘in agreement with the view that men should be placed in situations that demand some definite sacrifice from them and it is their practice to place men at some distance from their homes’.
Haringey First World War Peace Forum 
[…] Frederick was born in 1897, though we cannot say with any certainty where he was born or who his parents were. He was a Clerk and living in Finsbury Park, Hornsey, in 1916 when he applied for exemption from military service on grounds of conscience at Hornsey Tribunal. They granted him exemption from combatant service conditional on his undertaking work of national importance. […]
LikeLike
[…] W.E. was a Bank Clerk who appeared before Tottenham Tribunal – he was given Exemption from Combatant Service conditional upon his doing Work of National Importance. […]
LikeLike
[…] exemptionfrom military service. They gave him exemption from combatant service conditional on doing Work of National Importance, which he did in Charing Cross Hospital from 14th March 1917 to 20th April […]
LikeLike
[…] a GPO telegraphist, appeared before the Tottenham Tribunal, and his case was considered by the Pelham Committee in October 1916 and notes that the GPO wished to retain him. This suggests that the Tottenham […]
LikeLike
[…] Tribunal for exemption from Military Service at some unspecified date. He was then referred to the Pelham Committee during July and August of 1916 to find work of national importance. Arthur was apparently […]
LikeLike
[…] do know that he did Work of National Importance under the Pelham Committee – so he must have received an exemption certificate – and that he did market gardening in Essex […]
LikeLike
[…] from combatant service conditional on his doing work of national importance to be allocated by the Pelham Committee. He was directed to work on the land from 21 July 1916 to 1 August 1916.It is not known what […]
LikeLike
[…] Tribunal conditional upon his doing Work of National Importance. He would have been referred to the Pelham Committee and Pearce records that from 11 July 1916 to 28 August 1918 he was engaged in farmwork at Copford, […]
LikeLike
[…] put forward. His exemption was conditional on undertaking Work of National Importance under the Pelham Committee. We know he was doing farmwork in Essex between July 1916 and 2nd October 1918. He was then ill […]
LikeLike
[…] were, but he seems to have been given exemption from combatant service conditional upon taking up work of national importance. From the 10th July 1916 to 30th January 1917 he was engaged in farm work for a Mr. Porter of […]
LikeLike
[…] it seems the tribunal didn’t agree and what follows next is confusing. He appeared before the Pelham Committee and as a result is offered work by the Home-Grown Timber committee. The Tottenham Tribunal seem to […]
LikeLike
[…] that he took up work of national importance. He seems to have found farm work as the records of the Pelham Committee, which was overseeing men in this category, show him working on a farm at Feltham from April 1917 […]
LikeLike
[…] from Military Service conditional on Work of National Importance. He was found work by the Pelham Committee but appears not to have been able to work from 12th July to 30th August 1916 due to poor health, […]
LikeLike