Conscription

[Maiden Stone]

Was Thomas Donald always a carter? Could he have worked in a shipyard or at a coal mine? I'm thinking about local industries which were essential to the war effort. Ship-building on the Clyde (there was a firm at Troon) and lots of mines in Ayrshire and neighbouring counties. Also engineering works which were turned over to military production.

[medpat]

A carter could be transporting things that were important for the war effort.

You don't say how many children he had and if he was their sole provider. Somewhere I have read that there was an exemption due to economic reasons and one of the examples was a father of a large family.

 

[stanmapstone]

Somewhere I have read that there was an exemption due to economic reasons and one of the examples was a father of a large family.

 

That would ground (b) in my reply #1

Stan

[g forgeron]

Thanks to all who have replied, it could be the size of his family, he was the sole wage earner and at that time had a wife & four children.

 Ailsa  shipyard was there but I never heard him mention working in the Yard. There were no coal mines within the Troon area, other parts of Ayrshire yes, but not near Troon.

Barassie works were the only other engineering works, they repaired railway wagons and I assume all their materials would come and go by train

[Maiden Stone]

Glenburn, Prestwick would have been the nearest pit. It opened around that time.
I wouldn't have thought that having 4 children was sufficient grounds for exemption, unless the mother was dead or an invalid.
You discount health grounds. He may have had a condition that was later treatable, or wrongly diagnosed, or he recovered on his own.