VPRS 4815 Exemption Court Register

Full description

A referendum on conscription for military service outside of the Commonwealth was held on 28 October 1916 (see Victorian Year Book 1916-17, p.84). Although the proposal was defeated, the practice of requiring persons to serve within the Commonwealth continued.

Automatic exemptions were granted to:
persons unfit for any naval or military service,
members and officers of the Parliament of the Commonwealth or of a State,
Judges, stipendiary or special magistrates of Federal or State Courts,
ministers of religion,
persons employed in the police or prison services of the Commonwealth or State,
persons employed in lighthouses,
persons employed as medical practitioners or nurses in public hospitals,
persons not substantially of European origin or descent,
persons whose conscientious beliefs did not allow them to bear arms, and
persons engaged in any employment specified by Regulations or by Proclamation.

Applications could also be made for exemptions for a number of other reasons. These were:
on grounds that it was expedient in the national interest that the man should be engaged in other work in which he was habitually engaged, be engaged in other work in which he wished to be engaged, continue to be educated or trained,
on the ground that serious hardship would ensue owing to his exceptional domestic financial obligations,
on the ground that the man was the sole support of aged parents, a widowed mother, orphan brothers or sisters under the age of sixteen years who were physically incapable of earning their own living,
on the ground that he was the only son, the sole remaining son, or one of the remaining sons of a family of whose sons one-half at the least had enlisted prior to 2 October 1916,
on the ground that the man was not a natural-born or naturalized British subject.

Applications for exemption were heard by an exemption court in the military sub-district in which the applicant lived. Details of applications for exemption and the court's decision were recorded in registers. Each entry records the case number, the applicant's name, the applicant's reason for seeking exemption and the court's decision.