RNR enlistment terms

[Scalyback]

A quick heads up for me please. I know noting about sailor types, even less about part timers.

What age could a "boy" enlist for reserve service with out any prior navy engagement?

If enlisted under 18 could he break contract at 18? Even in wartime to say enlist in the army in September/October 1914.

Strange questions but may help with my great grand dads past.

[centurion]

Some cadets at Merchant Navy training schools joined the RNR in their last year

[horatio2]

No RNR boys had a a "prior navy engagement" and they could enrol in the RNR from at least age 16 as Signal Boys, Boy Cooks and Deck Boys.. Some were probably even younger given that there were no age limits to work as a boy on a trawler/drifter. The normal period for enrolment was five years but this was extended during the war and no voluntary discharges or re-enrolments were allowed, in the normal course.

[Scalyback]

Horatio as always a vast source on the navy.

Going to take a punt on the record on NA then. Given family lore and what was passed down, I think my GGG father did serve RN(V)R and done a bunk early on and enlisted under a false name in the army. GGG father must of obtained a clean record in the army as he ended up as a GWCG worker. Not suprised his son, my Grandfather was not an easy case to track either.

The plot does thicken as the RNR record is 95% him!