Underage men

• by Tredegar

  I have recently begun to help on the diary of the 6th Division Brigade Machine Gun Company and found an entry for Oct 12th, 1916 that showed a 2nd Lieutenant Lancaster was killed during an attack on the German lines. Not sure of the year, I started with this diary midway through, I looked in the Commonwealth War Graves website and found that he was only 17 years old. I know there were regulations regarding sending underage men into combat, but how did this apply to officers? I have seen the documentary about boy soldiers and was wondering if this subject couldn't be made into a blog.

  Posted April 20, 2015 10:41 AM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Here's a recent post on our facebook post about underage soldiers: https://www.facebook.com/OperationWarDiary/photos/a.555403007876629.1073741828.552705674813029/770274393056155/?type=1

  I'm not completely certain how this related to officers - I assume the rules were the same, with a similar ad-hoc adherence to them depending on recruiting officers and those within the battalion itself. Certainly an interesting topic for a blog post. I'll add it to the list!

  Posted April 21, 2015 9:29 AM

• by David_Underdown moderator

  Early on, if you could get a recommendation for a commsision there were quite a few 17 and 18 year-olds commisisoned

  Posted April 21, 2015 11:02 AM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Thanks, David - I imagine there were only too many young guys that age who joined up expecting an adventure.

  Posted April 21, 2015 12:08 PM

• by David_Underdown moderator

  And many had experience in OTC and so on, so it was a natural continuation from their school experience.

  Posted April 22, 2015 9:55 AM