About the project

In April 2016, the North Yorkshire County Record Office (now known as North Yorkshire Archives) was delighted to be awarded £8,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to make the North Riding Military Tribunal Papers 1916-1918 widely available.

The North Yorkshire County Record Office holds nearly 6000 appeal papers of men who wished to defer their military service or who conscientiously objected to it. In 1921, the Board of Health issued instructions that all tribunal records be destroyed. There were two exceptions to this, Middlesex and Lothian, and Peebles appeal records. These were retained as a benchmark for possible future use. By an oversight, the North Riding Tribunal papers have survived.

The Grounds for Appeal volunteers summarised, listed and digitised the case papers. These summaries can be viewed in our online catalogue. If you find a case you are interested in, you are welcome to visit us to view the papers.

As the project progressed through 2017 and 2018, updates were provided through a blog, sharing particular items and stories of interest. These previous blog posts can be viewed via the links below, and/or by following the ‘Next’ button on each page.

Grounds for Appeal project blog posts 2017-2018

• The case of Percy Carr: mechanical draughtsman for Messrs Rowntree & Co, cocoa manufacturers of York 
• James Smith Black (1878-1947): conscientious objector, Whitby
• Peter Brown (1878-1961), Snape
• Claude Colleer Abbot (1889-1971)
• George Albert Little, Reeth
• What happened to George Albert Little?
• Edward Pedley: 19 June 1881, Reeth to 9 November 1954, Grinton
• Sidney Kemp Brown
• Leyburn Band of Brothers
• Manufacturing industries in the North Riding
• Richard Freer Somerville: a matter of inheritance
• George Dennis and the German businessman
• Colonel James Digby Legard: Military Representative for Malton Urban and Rural District Council Appeal Tribunals