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Too young to join but fought anyway

Opened up reddit and a random picture came up that should be a thread here; people who lied about their age so they could fight in a war. Sorry to start with an American
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One of my Grandfathers lied about his age so he could join the Army - he was born in the slums of Whitechapel around 1910 and told me he joined up so he could get some decent clothes and regular food.

He went from boy soldier, Desert Rat (MiD) and retired as a RSM (refused numerous commission offers) after Malaya - two rows of gongs.

His civvy job was working for the Sheriff of Avon 'Enforcing & Collecting' - hard as nails but soft as shite with the grandkids - He died a month before I got accepted for the Regs. Having served for a bit, I'd love to have had a proper chat with him now.

RIP PJ.
 
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Both my Grandfathers on our side ,lied about their age to join up ....think that it was pretty common.

To be fair, the FiL joined up at 14 as a Drummer Boy in 1936 .....His 6 years were up in 1939, oops!

Was a scaley - endured Dunkirk and Kohima with 2 Div - served 30 years, retired as an LE Major then did another 20 years with the MoD Cipher Clerk Section ...
 
My Great Grandfather joined the army underage in the early 1900s. From photos, he looked older - thick period mustache.
Does anyone know how easy it was to join in terms of the army checking the information presented to them by the recruit?
 
One of my Grandfathers lied about his age so he could join the Army - he was born in the slums of Whitechapel around 1910 and told me he joined up so he could get some decent clothes and regular food.

He went from boy soldier, Desert Rat (MiD) and retired as a RSM (refused numerous commission offers) after Malaya - two rows of gongs.

His civvy job was working for the Sheriff of Avon 'Enforcing & Collecting' - hard as nails but soft as shite with the grandkids - He died a month before I got accepted for the Regs. Having served for a bit, I'd love to have had a proper chat with him now.

RIP PJ.
Joined up when he was 4?
 
. . . Does anyone know how easy it was to join in terms of the army checking the information presented to them by the recruit?

Short answer? Very easy. Records of birth were initially recorded at a very local level: depending who provided the information, they could be subject to misspellings and other inaccuracies. Stir in (certainly for the period WWI) the pressure to recruit, unavailability of cross-referencing documents and the determination of the recruit to join and -Hey, Presto!-you're in.

Having researched medals of the period for many years, examples of multiple Medal Index Cards for the same chap (as a result of several enlistments) are legion.

The saga of Boy Soldiers of WWI was heavily reported and debated at the time:

Youngest British soldiers in World War I - Wikipedia
 

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