Meltham WW1

[bykerlads]

Just in case anyone comes across any mention of him in WW1, the chap I am looking into was Tom Hirst of Meltham. Dob Mar 1887 and employed as overlooker in silk mill. We had rather deduced what is confirmed in the  publication which Heywood refered us to, namely that he had no military service and absence from home during the war, as 2 of his children were born during that period.
I would have thought that he would have been of conscription age and not apparently involved in a reserved occupation type job. Unless the silk mill became used to produce uniforms etc or maybe he had some kind of medical exemption?
A bit of a puzzle.