Am trying to find out if anybody has found records kept by local authorities of both males and females who registered for Fire watching Duties, or requested official exemption.I understand that in addition to workplace teams,, street fire watching parties at night were ordered. First of all, men between 16 and 60 were called upon to do this, then later, women between 20-45 were subject of a compulsory order. There was a system of exemptions, but I have not been able to find out if refusal to take part involved a tribunal.
Almost all local government archives have papers relating to fire watching duties. County Councils and large urban authorities would have a fire watching committee and their correspondence would be kept. To give an example from a Wolverhampton based article Papers held at Wolverhampton City Archive pertaining to Nock & Joseland, a long established and reputable Estate Agents operating from 48 Queen Street, refer to two Queen Street residents. The first concerns a Mr N M Bates of 47 Queen Street. Correspondence reveals that in 1942, Mr Bates was exempted from fire watching duties at his employer’s premises because he was already a Sub-leader in the residential district of Queen Street and nearby Bilston Street. Most local authority archives (record offices) have an online list of major categories of record held. Sadly very few have much in the way of digitised material so either a visit or use of a researcher would be necessary.
Your answer lies here THE DUKE OF BEDFORD had the following Notice on the Paper: To call the attention of His Majesty's Government to the unsatisfactory position whereby, through the failure of many tribunals to discharge their duties in a just and reasonable manner, and also through the failure of the Government to recognize the right of conscientious objection to fire-watching and to other compulsory work ordered by the Ministry of Labour, many persons of good character are being heavily fined or imprisoned, sometimes repeatedly for the same offence. To move to resolve, That the right to conscientious objection to fire-watching and to work ordered by the Ministry of Labour be henceforward recognized and that appellate tribunals should contain a majority of persons who, while fully prepared to recognize and reject the appeals of persons who are not genuine, have sympathy for the position of the sincere objector, whatever the grounds for his objection. Hansard, HL Deb 02 March 1943 vol 126 cc358-92
Neighbours also arranged that everyones duties were covered, my grandfather did his local street duties together with my grandmothers, and those of a neighbour who had a family & who's husband was away in the Navy. He was also on the rota at his office in the city of London in the 1940/41 blitz.
Thanks for all the information. I will have to wait until the County Record Office reopens to see what they have.
However the Hansard record makes it clear that people were going before tribunals for refusing to do fire watching
After WW1 the majority of tribunal records were deliberately destroyed - only a small number were retained as a general historical record of the process but with a very restricted access , some did escape destruction by accident. I do not know if a similar policy was followed post 1945 but it would not seem unlikely. My point was it is not necessary to wait until after lock down to determine if refusal to do fire watching would bring one before a tribunal unless one believes that the noble lord was misleading the H of L.
