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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Age on enlisting


Parrettd

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I am not sure whether parental consent was ever required for recruits over 18; at one time the Army required it only for recruits under 17 years six months.

It is possible, however, that the recruit in question was under the impression that permission would be required.

A more likely reason is that the recruit was genuinely unsure of his age. It was common in poorer and less literate families not to pay for a birth certificate, and in a social context where little attention was paid to exact age confusion would sometime arise.

A third possibility is the custom in some localities to cite age at the next birthday rather than the previous birthday.

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I have found quite a few CWGC records that give an age 1 year older than I know it to have been.

And local newspaper reports often used the term "died in his 25th year," so I have come to the conclusion that it may have been pretty common at the time to use the age at next birthday?

BillyH.

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I am not sure whether parental consent was ever required for recruits over 18; at one time the Army required it only for recruits under 17 years six months.

It is possible, however, that the recruit in question was under the impression that permission would be required.

A more likely reason is that the recruit was genuinely unsure of his age. It was common in poorer and less literate families not to pay for a birth certificate, and in a social context where little attention was paid to exact age confusion would sometime arise.

A third possibility is the custom in some localities to cite age at the next birthday rather than the previous birthday.

My Dad has "two" birthdays because he was one of 18 children in an agricultural family and his mother couldn't be sure if it was the 6th or 10th of the month when he was born as it was a few weeks later when his birth was registered. The "official" one is the 6th. (and of course there was no TV!)

Edited by jonbem
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Perhaps no more unusual than the many examples of men being out by a year when giving date of marriage or birth of a child.

Jaybee

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