Dad given two months to find farm work

A military tribunal in Stirling considered the case of a greenkeeper and jobbing gardener who was aged 40 and a widower with three young children, aged eight, six and three.

An appeal against call-up had been continued from a previous sitting to find out whether the man could be found work at the Ordnance Stores in Forthside.

However, the colonel there said he could now secure enough men above military age and women to fulfil his manpower requirements.

Military representative Capt Motherwell was of the view the man should go into military service as it would be better for his children.

They would be sent where they could be properly cared for as their father was “incapable of attending properly to his domestic duties”, said the captain.

However, the man’s lawyer, Mr WL Thomson, said his client held the “old fashioned prejudice” that he would like to look after his own children.

He could plough and was willing to do farm work or any other kind of service providing he could get home at night to look after his children.

It was decided the man should be sent to work in agriculture and he was given two months to find farmwork.

Capt Motherwell added: “I want to have the placing of him on a farm , so as to have some young man released for the Army.”