Ely Urban Tribunal  - we need these men at home

The Military Service Act came into force on 2nd March 1916; this deemed all men between 18 and 41 to have enlisted, whether or not they had attested under the earlier Derby Scheme.   Applications for exemption from the Act had to be made to local tribunals.  Ely Urban Tribunal served Ely, Prickwillow, Adelaide, Stuntney and Chettisham; other nearby villages on the Isle of Ely were served by Ely Rural Tribunal, which also met in Ely.    As well as showing the fate of individual men, the accounts of the Urban Tribunal allow us to see how depleted local industries, especially agriculture, were as employers complained about how few men they had left.  Inadvertently, they also bear witness to the increased role of women during the War as these were recruited in to fill the employment gaps.

The workings of the Ely Urban Tribunal and the Isle of Ely Appeals Committee

Those who appeared before the Tribunal and their fate

​The story of the two Ely Fishmongers, Fred Tow and Percy Newstead, and the Urban Tribunal