We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant of £234,123 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to undertake an exciting project working with 14 other archive services across England and Wales on records of First World War military service appeal tribunals. The project “Grounds for Appeal: First World War Military Service Appeal Tribunals in Great Britain” is led by the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and will run from January 2026 until January 2028.

First World War military service appeal tribunals were established to adjudicate applications of men who believed they had grounds to claim exemption from conscription under the 1916 Military Services Act introduced in January 1916. There were 2,086 local tribunals established, but survival of the records is limited due to a government instruction to destroy the records in 1921. Despite this order many counties still hold surviving documents, and this project aims to bring records of 43 tribunals together into a single searchable database.

Although often associated with conscientious objection only 2-3% of applications were on grounds of conscience. Other grounds for appeal included occupation, serious hardship to family or business, or ill health. This provides a fascinating insight into the society and economy of the time, and enable us to hear the voices of people who are often missing from many historical sources; voices of those with a disability, of those caring for sick or elderly family members, of women, of those men with ordinary but essential employment for a local area.

Volunteers taking part in the project will extract key information from the records held at participating archive services, which will then be brought together to form the national database. They will also research stories of individuals, their families and local areas. Events and learning resources will allow even more people to interact with and enjoy their local and national heritage, with varied opportunities to engage creatively with the archive, building connections within and between communities.

We are looking forward to working with following archive services on the project:

Essex Record Office

Gloucestershire Archives

Gwent Archives

Lancashire Archives

National Library of Wales

Norfolk Record Office

North Yorkshire County Record Office

Portsmouth History Centre

Staffordshire Record Office

Suffolk Archives

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

Warwickshire County Record Office

Wandsworth Heritage Centre

Wigan Archives

With the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre

Keep an eye on our website and social media for announcements over the course of the project!

If you have any queries about the ‘Grounds for Appeal’ project then please get in touch with Naomi Oakley, Archivist and Project Lead on naomi.oakley@wiltshire.gov.uk