Posted on 03/28/2002 5:25:14 PM PST by Pokey78
BOYS have had a place in the British Armed Forces since well before the formation of the New Model Army by Cromwell in the mid-1600s.
Drummer boys, most in their early teens but some as young as nine, enlisted in the army, while "powder monkeys" of a similar age helped both the army's and the navy's gunners reload their guns.
Runners and ship's boys were also normally in their early teens. Technically, they were regarded as non-combatants but shot, shell and often opponents all ignored such distinctions.
At the battle of Isandhlwana on Jan 22, 1879, when the Zulus destroyed a British force of 1,700 men, the little drummer boys were hung on hooks behind the wagons and ritually disembowelled.
Many, however, made their way through to the real army or navy, most notably Admiral Horatio Nelson, who, like a number of other great seafarers, began his career as a ship's boy.
By the late 19th century Victorian attitudes had begun to hold sway and the age at which ship's boys, apprentices and runners were recruited had risen to the mid-teens. During the First World War strict rules excluding under-17s were widely ignored by young boys anxious to take a pot shot at the Hun.
Pte George Peachment of the King's Royal Rifles was thought to be 18 when he died at Hulloch, France, during the First World War Battle of Loos. During heavy fighting, with the front line beating a hasty retreat, Pte Peachment saw his company commander lying wounded and crawled out to help him.
The enemy fire was intense but although there was a shell-hole close by in which some of his colleagues had taken shelter, Pte Peachment knelt in the open by his officer, trying to help him. He was first wounded by a bomb and then shot dead by a German rifle.
It was only later, when he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery, that it was discovered that he was just 15, having added three years to his age to join up.
Perhaps the most famous of many thousands of teenagers killed during the First World War was Boy First Class John Travers Cornwell, who was only 16 when he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Jutland off Denmark in May 1916.
He remained alone standing at his gun on the light cruiser Chester, with the gun's crew dead or wounded around him, quietly awaiting orders. While he did so, the ship was hit 17 times.
He lived long enough to be taken ashore, but died of his wounds in Grimsby Hospital three days later. During the Second World War teenagers continued to lie about their ages to join the British Armed Forces and during the Gulf war nearly 500 British servicemen were aged under 18.
As recently as the Kosovo conflict, two British soldiers were aged 17. In October 1999 Britain was criticised at a Berlin conference for being the worst offender in Europe for sending under-18 soldiers into combat.
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers claimed that the Army had at the time more than 6,000 under-18s, with 51 employed in the Balkans. The conference claimed that 92 16- or 17-year-olds had died on active service since 1982.
The Ministry of Defence has always vigorously defended its policy, claiming that at 17 men and women are at the height of their physical and mental powers.
Physical and reflexive powers maybe. Mental? Mmm. no.
I remember reading stories about young teens in battle from the War Between the States. Am I proud of my (then) 17 y.o. for signing up? Yes. Did I want them in harm's way? No. But, I signed.
/john
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