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Remembered Today:

Did these two men lie about their age, and, if so, why?


A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy

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On 20/09/2020 at 22:14, kenf48 said:

Once a man declared his age, which is all he was required to do, no documentation was required or provided, then that became his 'Army age'.  Parents attempting to get youngsters back who had enlisted under age encountered this obstacle frequently, though not applicable here, presumably their parents approved of the brothers enlistment.  George Coppard, for example, was just sixteen and when he sought to enlist was told by the recruiting sergeant to 'come back tomorrow when you are nineteen.'  He did, and went on to serve with some distinction.

 

I have read on in George Coppard's book now, and got to the bit where he mentions that, unbeknown to him, his Uncle had written to the War Office when he was just 18, and had been on the Western Front for 8 months, pointing out that he was too young to have enlisted, and requesting his release. George Coppard goes on:
The War Office replied by saying that their records showed that I was 19 years old on enlistment, and, that being my official age, I could not be released. Apparently the production of my birth certificate cut no ice with them.

From this it seems that the War Office were willing connivers in the deception. So no punishment, but no release either.

5 hours ago, RegHannay said:

Good luck with the book ALFbP. Beat me to it!! Just like my school reports "must try harder"

Thanks Dave. I shall look out for your book when it is published.

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  • 4 months later...

Reading a 1992 edition of There’s a Devil in the Drum by John Lucy, I have learned that Lucy enlisted according to his army papers on his 18th birthday on 3 January 1912, which would make his birth date 3 January 1894, and mean he was just old enough to join up legally, though, according to Terry Cave’s introduction to the 1992 edition, family records suggest that his actual birth date was 1 January 1895. Mr Cave seems to suggest that other clues in the book itself are more consistent with 3 January 1894 being the correct date, but why would family records be the less reliable source? Don’t the other clues in the book just mean that Lucy was consistent in promulgating the lie? Incidentally, his brother, a year younger, certainly must have lied about his age,

Terry Cave also mentions that in Old Soldier Sahib Frank Richards says that he added 18 months to his 17 ½ years when he enlisted in 1901, so very possibly we have two examples here of authors of personal accounts enlisting underage, in addition to Frank Coppard, as mentioned in an earlier post on this thread.

Although it was clearly quite common to enlist underage, was it so common that it is not surprising that three of the best known authors of books detailing their personal experiences of WW1 – perhaps the three best known authors of such books - all falsified their age to enlist early (assuming that John Lucy’s family were right about his birth date)? Or does the characteristic of being so hungry for adventure as to lie in order to seize it early tend to go hand in hand with a propensity to be naturally more observant of experiences than other people, and thus more suited to writing a narrative account at a later date?

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