Can the military draw on civil pilots during wartime?
 

I found this article from 2003. It seems to suggest that because pilots have basic flying skills they could be called up to fly military aircraft.
This was during the war with Iraq.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...icle809668.ece

Is it true that even if you never had any dealings with the military they can order you out there? I don't see how they can if you are a tax payer that coughed up almost £100k of your own money (albeit borrowed from a bank), to become a pilot with no government assistance whatsoever.

You misunderstand - this refers to ex-military pilots with appropriate experience and ratings who are active reservists or very recently ex-military. You would only have to worry in a long drawn-out world war for mass call-up to occur: not to mention the unlikihood of sufficient replacement airframes existing for you to fly in such a case!

No - BA used to fly and train military pilots so as to maintain vital German air links in case of the Cold War (flying BA aircraft), in areas where civilian crew would not be expected to fly.

If it ever was contractual, perhaps BOAC or earlier.