Henry Baden Clarke

Born 30th June 1900, Henry Clarke was underage to fight at the front when he joined and died. The 4th Battalion Hampshire Regiment served mainly in the Middle East through Mesopotamia into Persia (now Iraq and Iran), to the south of the former USSR and to India. It seems likely he joined at 14 or 15, as the Battalion sailed from Southamption in October 1915 to India.

A diary account records one of their first enemy encounters:

I was swotting mosquitoes from my neck and doing my best to keep the flies out of my tea when I saw a lad suddenly sit down and roll over. Immediately there was a flat report from somewhere behind me -- then three more. As I turned back I saw an Indian orderly holding his neck and blood spurting from his fingers. I cannot hope to make you understand my feelings at the moment. I did not know whether to laugh or cry -- or run away. A machine gun cut loose at the camp edge and we dived for equipment and arms. Nothing happened -- and we soon settled down. The man who was hit first was hit through the heart -- we buried him that night. He was only seventeen and I liked him thoroughly as a fine boy and a good comrade. Such was my introduction to War at close quarters -- the two following days we were sniped but had no damage except two carriers wounded. Their wounds were ghastly from the size of the big lead bullets which expanded on impact and took great pieces of flesh right away.

250,000 underage soldiers joined up, but many thousands more tried their luck and were turned away:

• Recruitment officers were paid two shillings and sixpence (about £6 in today’s money) for each new recruit, and would often turn a blind eye to any concern they had about age
• Recruitment process included medical checks, to make sure a potential recruit was fit enough to fight rather than if he was old enough. The minimum height requirement was five feet, three inches
• Parents, headmasters, even MPs helped get underage lads into the army