Early in 1918, the government decided to extend conscription to Ireland, and that Ireland would have to be given home rule in order to make it acceptable.

This tradition has not been changed by the Bundeswehr which is a classical conscript army but where all ranks of Unteroffizier and up consist only of professional soldiers who sign up for a period extending conscription.

Samuel Eliot Morison, a cousin of mine, wrote that "An Administration bill to extend conscription for the duration of the emergency . . . passed the House by a majority of only one vote."

At this stage Lloyd George opposed extending conscription to Ireland - Carson advised that extending conscription to Ulster alone would be impractical.

As the war progressed, in Ireland, opposition to the War grew stronger, reaching its peak in 1918 when the British government proposed laws to extend conscription to all able bodied Irishmen during the Conscription Crisis.

He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs from 1938-1940, when he resigned in protest at the failure to extend conscription to Northern Ireland during the Second World War.

The violent suppression of the Easter Rising had dismayed Childers and a Westminster bill to extend military conscription to Ireland, leading to the Conscription Crisis of 1918, angered him further: he described the proposal as "insane and criminal".

Finally, the British proposal to extend conscription for the war to Ireland provoked widespread resistance, (see Conscription Crisis of 1918) and discredited the Irish Parliamentary Party who had supported the British war effort.

He shortened the period of military service, extended conscription to all able-bodied men, created a permanent army, a mobile militia and a reserve, commenced the renewal of armaments, and placed Italy in a position to put 1,800,000 men on a war footing.

In April the German Spring Offensive overran the Allied front causing a severe manpower shortage which resulted in a clumsy cabinet dual policy decision by Lloyd George linking implementing Home Rule with extending conscription to Ireland.