Military Training Act 1939
| Year | 1939 |
Military Training Act, 1939
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 25.
An Act to make temporary provision for rendering persons between the ages of twenty and twenty-one years liable to undergo training in the armed forces of the Crown; and for purposes connected with the matter aforesaid.
[26th May 1939]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Classes of persons liable to be registered and called up for military training.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, every male British subject ordinarily resident in Great Britain shall, while he is between the ages of twenty years and twenty-one years, be registered for military training in the United Kingdom under this Act, in a register kept by the Minister (hereinafter referred to as ‘the military training register’), and shall, at such time and place as may be notified by the Minister in accordance with regulations made under this Act, make in the prescribed manner application to be so registered and furnish the prescribed particulars about himself.
(2) Every person registered in the military training register shall, during the period of one year beginning with the date on which he is so registered, be liable to be called up for military training under this Act.
(3) The Minister, if satisfied that there is good cause for so doing, may permit any person to be registered in the military training register before he attains the age of twenty years, or may permit any person registered in that register, on application made by him within the prescribed period after being so registered, to postpone his liability to be called up for military training, and in the latter case, the period of one year for which he is liable to be so called up shall begin with the date to which his liability is postponed instead of the date on which he was so registered; and where application for such permission is made to the Minister on grounds of hardship, the Minister shall, unless he grants the permission, refer the application to a Military Training (Hardship) Committee constituted under Part I of the Schedule to this Act.
(4) An applicant for such permission as aforesaid who is aggrieved by the determination of a Military Training (Hardship) Committee, and the Minister, if he considers it necessary, may, within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner, appeal to the umpire or any deputy umpire appointed by His Majesty for the purposes of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1935 , whose decision shall be final; and the umpire or any deputy umpire shall, when hearing any such appeal, sit with two assessors appointed by the Minister:
Provided that, if the determination of the Committee with respect to any application was unanimous, the applicant shall not be entitled to appeal to the umpire or any deputy umpire except with the leave of the Committee.
(5) The Minister or any person authorised by him shall be entitled to be heard on any reference or appeal under this section.
(6) If any person, on making application to be registered in the military training register, or at any time thereafter while he is liable to be called up for military training under this Act, notifies the Minister in the prescribed manner that he has a preference for naval or air force service, that fact shall be recorded in the said register.
(7) If, while a person is liable to be called up for military training under this Act, any change occurs in the particulars which he is required by subsection (1) of this section to furnish, he shall forthwith notify the change to the Minister in the prescribed manner.
(8) Any person who fails to comply with any of the requirements of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds:
Provided that no prosecution in respect of any such failure shall be instituted without the consent of the Minister.
(9) A person who has failed to apply for registration in the military training register at the time when he was required to make such application may nevertheless, on application being subsequently made by him and on furnishing the prescribed particulars about himself, be registered in that register, notwithstanding that he may have attained the age of twenty-one years; and any person found guilty of an offence under this section by reason of his failure to apply for registration shall furnish the prescribed particulars about himself and shall forthwith be registered in that register, notwithstanding that he may have attained that age.
(10) For the purposes of this Act, the time at which a person attains any relevant age shall be deemed to be, according to the law in force elsewhere than Scotland as well as according to the law in force in Scotland, the commencement of the relevant anniversary of the date of his birth.
(11) The Minister may pay—
(a ) to members of Military Training (Hardship) Committees, and to persons appointed to sit as assessors with the umpire or any deputy umpire, such remuneration and allowances as the Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine, and
(b ) to persons whose applications are referred to such Committees or who appeal from the decisions of such Committees, and to any witnesses whose attendance is certified by any such Committee or by the umpire or deputy umpire, as the case may be, to have been necessary, travelling and subsistence allowances in accordance with such scale as the Minister may, with the consent of the Treasury, approve.
2 Exemption of certain classes of persons.
(1) No person shall be liable to be registered in the military training register, or to be called up for military training under this Act, who—
(a ) is a person employed in the service of the Government of a part of His Majesty's dominions outside Great Britain or in the service of the Government of a British protectorate, a mandated territory or some other country or territory which is under His Majesty's protection or suzerainty, being a person whose presence in Great Britain is occasioned solely by his employment in that service; or
(b ) is a member of any of His Majesty's regular forces, or has, after attaining the age of seventeen years, served for a continuous period of not less than six months as a member of any of those forces; or
(c ) has, before the twenty-seventh day of April nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, been entered or enlisted in any of His Majesty's reserve and auxiliary forces or been appointed to be an officer of any of those forces; or
(d ) is undergoing training as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, the Royal Military College or the Royal Air Force College; or
(e ) is the subject of an order or inquisition under the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, 1890 to 1930, or is being detained in pursuance of section twenty-five of the Lunacy Act, 1890 , or as a criminal lunatic or in pursuance of an order made under the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884 , or is undergoing treatment as a temporary patient under section five of the Mental Treatment Act, 1930 , or is a person placed in an institution or a certified house, or under guardianship, under section three of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913 , or is the subject of an order under section six, eight, or nine of that Act, or is under supervision provided under paragraph (b ) of section thirty of that Act, or is an inmate of a home approved under section fifty of that Act, or is the subject of a notification under subsection (2) of section fifty-one of that Act; or
(f ) is certified by a local authority, as defined by the Blind Persons Acts, 1920 and 1938, to be registered as a blind person under arrangements made by the authority under those Acts:
Provided that paragraph (c ) of this subsection shall not apply to any person unless he has, at the date of the passing of this Act, completed four years' service in any of His Majesty's reserve and auxiliary forces or is at that date serving in one of those forces.
(2) A person who has, before the twenty-seventh day of April nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, been accepted for service in one of His Majesty's reserve and auxiliary forces, and who has neither—
(a ) failed to comply with any directions given by the competent authority requiring him to join that force, nor
(b ) been notified by that authority that his services in that force are not required,
shall not be liable to be called up for military training under this Act, notwithstanding that he may not yet have been entered or enlisted in that force, or been appointed to be an officer thereof, and for the purposes of this subsection a person shall be deemed to have been accepted before the said date for service in one of His Majesty's reserve and auxiliary forces if he offered himself before that date for such service and has been accepted by the competent authority not later than one month after the passing of this Act.
(3) Any person who, on or after the twenty-seventh day of April nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, has been entered in the naval reserve force raised under the following provisions of this Act, or been enlisted in the militia or in the air force reserve or auxiliary air force, for service in each case for a period of at least four years on terms which render him liable to be called up for training for a continuous period of not less than six months, shall not be liable to be registered in the military training register if, at the time when he would otherwise be required to make application to be so registered, he is serving by virtue of that entry or enlistment, and shall not in any event be liable to be called up for military training under this Act.
(...
To continue reading
Request your trial