Applications to Enlist in the AIF MT1486/1

An example of an application to re-enlist in the AIF, in this case ruled unfit.

NAA series  MT1486/1 includes Applications to Enlist.  Some of these forms are for men rejected on health grounds, some appear to have been accepted, and some appear to be from men who had not chance whatever of being accepted because of their health, but very likely wanted to qualify for a badge to show that they had tried to enlist.

In the case of Ru Jacobsohn, above, he had served in the Middle East, and on Gallipoli, with the 7th Infantry Battalion, and the above form reveals that he had been discharged with a gastric ulcer, though his B2455 also shows a wound to the shoulder and dysentery.  He attempted to re-enlist in 1916 and was found to be unfit for the AIF, but fit for Home Service. 

Not many of these applications have been digitised at the moment - the ones that are there may have been requested by researchers, perhaps.  Search them at the National Australian Archives. 

The Call to Arms, 1916

NAA B6525 VARIOUS/CERTAIN-A

An interesting series of documents in the National Archives Collection is the "World War I 'Call to Arms' recruiting forms for Victoria, arranged by reason for non-enlistment", Series B6525.    This was for a census of every unenlisted man of military age, demanding to know whether they intended to enlist and if not, why not.

Dr Bart Ziino discusses the government problem in trying to get enlistment quotas filled in an article in the NAA magazine Memento.*   A more detailed article by Ziino on the subject of "Enlistment and non-enlistment in wartime Australia : responses to the 1916 call to arms appeal", was published in  Australian historical studies, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 217-232, Routledge, Melbourne, in 2010.

Only a handful of forms have been digitised at this stage.  They are grouped according to the reason given for non-enlistment, with a name index at the front.

Joseph Vincent Farrell, an unmarried 29 year old horse trainer residing at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Ascot Vale, declined the opportunity to explain to the government his reasons for not enlisting.   If reasons given were not considered adequate by local committees, they would be followed up.

* Memento has disappeared from the NAA website.  You'll have to look for copies possibly at the NAA, or in other libraries.