Valentine Joe Strudwick – boy soldier
Valentine Joe Strudwick – so named because he was born on February 14 – was one of the youngest boy soldiers in the British Army to be killed in action. He was just 15 years old.
During the First World War, officially the minimum age for enlistment was 19. But the authorities turned a blind eye, and many boys lied about their age and joined up for a bit of an adventure – after all, the country had been told that it would all be over by Christmas.
Valentine Joe, from Dorking in Surrey, was the son of Jesse and Louisa Strudwick. After leaving school, he went to work for his uncle, a coal merchant… but, like so many others, he was lured into the Army by persuasive recruitment campaigns. At the age of 14, he enlisted and joined the 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, part of the 14th (Light) Division – the battalion for volunteer soldiers. Within weeks, he was sent to the trenches at Boezinge near Ypres in Belgium.
He was killed in action on 14 January 1916, exactly a month before his 16th birthday. He’s buried in the Essex Farm Cemetery near Ypres – where, earlier this year, I came across his grave by chance. A little research revealed that Valentine Joe’s death became a symbol of the lunacy of the First World War and the shameful use of such young boys at the Front. His grave is one of the most visited in any of the First World War cemeteries.
Also... see this simple but poignant act of reconciliation.
Valentine Joe Strudwick – boy soldier
Valentine Joe Strudwick – so named because he was born on February 14 – was one of the youngest boy soldiers in the British Army to be killed in action. He was just 15 years old.
During the First World War, officially the minimum age for enlistment was 19. But the authorities turned a blind eye, and many boys lied about their age and joined up for a bit of an adventure – after all, the country had been told that it would all be over by Christmas.
Valentine Joe, from Dorking in Surrey, was the son of Jesse and Louisa Strudwick. After leaving school, he went to work for his uncle, a coal merchant… but, like so many others, he was lured into the Army by persuasive recruitment campaigns. At the age of 14, he enlisted and joined the 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, part of the 14th (Light) Division – the battalion for volunteer soldiers. Within weeks, he was sent to the trenches at Boezinge near Ypres in Belgium.
He was killed in action on 14 January 1916, exactly a month before his 16th birthday. He’s buried in the Essex Farm Cemetery near Ypres – where, earlier this year, I came across his grave by chance. A little research revealed that Valentine Joe’s death became a symbol of the lunacy of the First World War and the shameful use of such young boys at the Front. His grave is one of the most visited in any of the First World War cemeteries.
Also... see this simple but poignant act of reconciliation.