Driver gets war call-up exemption

Car used by Government

A case involving a man – described as a “patriotic motorist” – was considered by the Burgh of Stirling Military Tribunal.

A application for exemption from call-up was made on behalf of the 26-year-old single man by the district purchasing officer of the Army Service Corp.

He told the tribunal at the outbreak of war the man tried to enlist but was rejected on grounds of a damaged knee. He was a member of the British Motor Service Volunteer Corps and volunteered his services with the use of his motor car to the Government.

A year earlier he was attached for duty to the district purchasing officer at Stirling and was saving the Government “a very substantial sum in the course of the year”.

He received nine shillings a day out of which he paid the running expenses of the car.

The officer said if the man was called up, he would have to find another car and that would cost the Government about £500 a year. It was by no means certain that the man would at the end of the war be compensated for depreciation on his car.

After considering the case, the tribunal granted conditional exemption.

Tribunal members also heard the case of a butcher working in Stirling but living in Bannockburn who asked for his case to be reconsidered as another man in the same employment had been granted conditional exemption.

The married dad-of- three had recently undergone an operation and when he was passed for general Army service weighed only eight stone seven pounds. His usual weight was 11 stone and his weight at the time of the tribunal had increased only to nine stone. His appeal was rejected but he was told he would not be called up for a fortnight.