From Unfit to Fit by A.C. Brokenshire

 

Stark naked, I shivered.

Outside from where I waited, armed soldiers simulated warfare.  They scurried around a network of excavated practice trenches.

It was almost my turn for a three-hour physical examination in a dungeon like, military tent at Higher Barracks, Exeter which boasted one single antique stove down its far end.

‘You’re next, Drake,’ an officer instructed a recruit, who was close enough in front of me that I enjoyed his body warmth and could reach around his torso for extra, if needed.  Drake dutifully peeled off the line, as more men behind me shuffled forward.

I was at the front. 

‘Open wide,’ the medic said.

‘Ahhhh,’ said Drake as the medic peered into his mouth.  I made a mental note of this as it was a sensible response.

I took his place, then was told,

‘Up on the scales.’

I stood as tall as my five foot seven could reach.  The medic dropped a measurement bar to my crown and extended a tape measure from the floor to my chin.  This I deemed acceptable, as I was a tailor’s apprentice, and I had often taken gentlemen’s personal measurements for suits.

‘Get down!  Now cough!’ he said as he weighed my privates.  I experienced an automatic reaction to a cold palm, but things got worse.

‘Bend over!’ he ordered.

Somehow, I was accepted for support duty class C2 in the Home Service.  Far from, I remember, last autumn, when I had been rejected on medical grounds by Doctor Nesbit for a weak instep and half inch under normal chest measurement.  For the life of me that day in September 1916, I couldn’t see how my physical condition had changed.

Eight months later after a bout of spotted fever at boot camp, I was once again ‘reviewed’ and by a miracle was moved up to a category B2 level of fitness, to take my duties as sailmaker in the Royal Flying Corps.  I was billeted to an aircraft repair section at Beverly Aerodrome, Yorkshire.

 

I read a Hansard report on medical examinations a month later.

‘We were told by the Under-Secretary for War in the Debate last Thursday that men are being examined under the Review of Exceptions Act at the rate of 15,000 a day.  It is ten weeks since the examinations began,’ Mr Snowdon said.

‘Many of the greatest scandals have been in relation to these men. The hon. and learned Member for Ealing has already pointed out in the House.  This matter of re-examination had been raised, and particularly the methods pursued in respect to the re-examination of men in the lower categories and the passing of them into classes A and B.  If a man has been classed as C3, it is true as has been alleged frequently that these men are subsequently passed into B1 and into B2, without any examination at all,’ Mr Pringle said.[1]

I was one of these exceptions, however, I was ready to serve for my country.

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[1] Hansard  HC Deb 26 June 1917 vol 95 cc217-26. Online. Accessed 12 January 2025.  Available from: MILITARY SERVICE ACTS (MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS). (Hansard, 26 June 1917)