Features / World War I
Bristol’s War: Pawnbroking’s essential role
When conscription was introduced in early 1916, the government set up local Military Service Tribunals across the country where men who objected to being called up could make their case.
A few men who did not wish to undertake military service were conscientious objectors. Most, however, wanted to avoid being taken into the army because they had work or family obligations or because they were medically unfit. A great many were simply trying to avoid having to serve. Well over half the men called up in Bristol between 1916 and 1918 appealed to the local tribunal.
Some men’s employers pleaded their cases for them, saying they were essential to the running of the business, or that the work they were doing was vital to the national war effort.
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In Bristol, the chairman of the local Military Service Tribunal was Alderman John Swaish (pictured), who had been Lord Mayor when war was declared two years previously.
Swaish had made his money running a successful pawnbroking business.
He had a small chain of shops in working class districts across the city which loaned money to the poor. These loans were secured against people’s possessions, such as clothes or jewellery.
Some of his employees enlisted when war broke out, or when they were old enough to sign up.
When his five remaining able-bodied managers were called up he hired a solicitor to plead the case before the tribunal that he himself chaired. He stepped down from the panel when the case was heard, but of course the other members of the tribunal were his personal friends and acquaintances.
All five of them were exempted from having to serve. It paid to have friends in high places.
This is one of over 100 tales of Bristol in the First World War written by Eugene Byrne for Bristol 2014 and available on a free smartphone app, Great War Stories. Details and downloads at http://www.bristol2014.com/great-war-stories-map-and-app.html
This is the final instalment of an eight-part serialisation on Bristol24/7 – read the previous seven stories here…
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